


it comes in waves

by moonlitbird



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: A very Northern Mermaid AU, Alternate Universe, Drinking, Fantasy, Human!Even, M/M, Magic, Marijuana, Mermaid!Isak, Nixies, Selkies, lots of magic, mermaid au, some sexual content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-09-13 07:03:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9111700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlitbird/pseuds/moonlitbird
Summary: Isak doesn't know how he ended up in Galalogfjord. Even knows exactly how he ended up in the tiny fishing town. In the end, it doesn't really matter either way.In a town that no one can place on a map, and in waters full of magic and creatures mostly forgotten, a boy and a mermaid meet.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [【授权翻译】It Comes in Waves / 乘浪而至](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9689717) by [CyniCyniCyniC](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyniCyniCyniC/pseuds/CyniCyniCyniC)



> Thank you SO much to [Felicia](https://hamiltrashton.tumblr.com) for her beta and for her help with the Norwegian elements and everything!
> 
> Translations:  
>  _Smal_ \- Skinny  
>  _Havgutt_ \- Merboy (roughly)  
>  _Gull_ \- Gold  
>  _Navneløse_ \- the nameless one  
>  _Elsker deg_ \- I love you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you SO much to [Felicia](https://hamiltrashton.tumblr.com) for her beta and for her help with the Norwegian elements and everything!
> 
> Translations:  
>  _Smal_ \- Skinny  
>  _Havgutt_ \- Merboy (roughly)  
>  _Gull_ \- Gold  
>  _Navneløse_ \- the nameless one  
>  _Elsker deg_ \- I love you

Isak doesn’t remember how he came here. Looking back into his memory is like staring into a trench at the very bottom of the sea. Perhaps he could find answers, if he were to swim deep enough, but the black is foreboding and he doesn’t dare.

There are flashes, like sun on minnow scales, smiling faces and storms and of people and places that don’t belong to him anymore. Yet Isak has no names for anything beyond the mouth of the fjord. Not even for himself.

The nixies who took him in call him _Gull_ for the hue of his hair and the splashes of gold scales amongst the slate grey of his tail.

The selkies just call him _Smal_ . It’s not particularly fair in Isak’s opinion. He’s not _that_ much skinnier than they are when they shed their skins.

There’s also a seawitch who lives near the mouth of the fjord who calls him _Navneløse,_ the nameless one. She always makes Isak feel just a little uncomfortable when her dark eyes sparkle at him. She knows more than Isak wants to know.

She’s not wrong about him, though - she rarely is, about anything - as it’s a human that will give Isak the name he chooses to keep. _Smal_ , _Havgutt, Gull, Navneløse_ \- they’re all names he holds against his heart in some way, but none slip in before Isak. _Isak_ will write itself there in permanent ink.

The lone mermaid likes it in the fjord, though, even if he doesn’t know how he ended up here. He likes to learn the habits of the fish, to race the seals along the shoreline. He likes the men on their little fishing boats, never taking too much, singing and laughing on their decks while Isak listens beneath the grey-green waves. He likes the nixies who found him and he only _says_ he hates it when they weave flowers of seaweed into his hair. He likes the pack of selkies that treat him like he’s one of their own. He likes the way their rowdy laughter bounces off the water before it’s swallowed by the sea.  

It’s safe here, in this little corner of the world.

Isak will one day wonder if that’s what brought _him_ here. If the world washed _him_ into Galalog, too, if this is where the earth brings people who need to be safe.

He hopes so.

 

Isak spends most of his mornings drifting through the shallows, the long exposure to the summer sun warming the Northern waters. He lets fish nibble on his fins and runs fingers through the seaweed growing along the bottom. He’ll head into deeper waters when the people begin to appear and the sun risks cutting through the normally dark waters and exposing him. He’ll wait by the rocks for the selkies to return from their hunt - for fish or for beer, depending on the day.

There are fat-bellied seals sunning themselves up on the beach, and the mermaid momentarily entertains the idea of how it would feel to join them. He doesn’t dare though, not this close to the human settlement. Instead, he weaves through the thick logs that hold up the biggest docks in Galolog, the ones that will soon be filled with fisherman ready to take in the day’s haul.

He moves up the coast, poking his head out of the water when he feels confident. The town is made up of low, storm weathered buildings. The ones in sight are all familiar. Isak knows Jonas and the other selkies go to the cafe by the beach for ice cream in the summer, employing just enough magic not to be noticed. There’s a packing plant in sight, as well as an oyster shack. Isak knows there must be many other buildings and businesses from what he’s heard the dock workers say - and from what he’s learned from the books Jonas steals for him. There must be shops and schools and homes, restaurants and grocers. The books talked about all of it.

It was the nixies who taught him the spells to keep them dry under water. They taught him many things, Noora always patient and helpful while Eskild taught him other spells, ones that made Noora frown nervously.

Isak swims past the dense heart of Galalog, more and more space spreading out between the docks, until little houses squatting amongst wind-beaten grasses are the only thing breaking up the natural landscape.

It’s actually an unfamiliar sound that stops Isak from continuing on his way. It’s tinny and reedy, but Isak quickly recognizes it as recorded human music. It’s extremely early, in spite of the light, and so Isak finds himself floating curiously in the direction of the noise. It leads him to a grey dock that Isak hasn’t seen activity on in years. He assumed it to be abandoned, any path that once led here completely covered in brush.

Isak makes sure to approach from the side, knowing humans usually looked outward at the water, before popping his eyes above the waterline. Sure enough, there’s a human on the dock. He’s sitting cross-legged on the worn planks, wrapped in a thick coat with a scarf around his neck. A little rectangle - _a phone,_ Isak remembers - is blasting out a strained beat, almost swallowed by the waves. The boy is sketching into a small journal.

And he’s beautiful.

His nose is pink with chill and his lips are full. They’re chapped, which makes sense with the way he’s nibbling at them as he draws. His hair is a wild smudge of pale blond against the sky, pushed back from his face. Little waves lick Isak’s cheeks and only the coolness of them makes Isak realize his skin is a little heated - his heart is racing a bit, and he has no idea why. Maybe it’s trying to match the beat of the song. He likes it, the music. Spoken words over something heavy and rhythmic.

The boy’s head bobs with the song, and his lips move to words that Isak can’t make out. It’s compelling, and it pulls him in closer. He wants to know what color the boy’s eyelashes are and if he’s singing or just mouthing the words. The song ends, and in the silent pause before the next one starts, the boy’s eyes flick upward.

Isak want’s to claim that this boy has some magic sense that let him know Isak was looking, but in all honesty, Isak has swam way too close. He didn’t mean to, but now he’s no more than an orca’s length from a human boy who is looking him right in the eye. The boy’s brow dips a little in confusion as Isak freezes.

His head tips just a little to the side.

“ _Halla…_ ”

Isak eyes go wide. In his panic he doesn’t think. He turns to flee, rolls his body into the water, and as he dives, the sun flashes against his tail.

 

o o o

 

It’s been less than two weeks since Even Bech Næsheim moved into a run down cabin in a nowhere town as far away from Oslo as his parents could stand. It’s been less than two weeks since Even cut every superficial tie and moved to Galalog to finish school, and it’s suddenly feeling a lot less like fleeing and a lot more like going on a mystical journey.

Obviously Even would prefer the latter. While Even would be lying if the former wasn’t accurate in some sense, he’d have to insist that the the less pathetic version of events was gaining some validity as well.

After all, Even has seen a mermaid.

It’s still late summer, and classes at his new school haven’t begun - so Even has all the time in the world to wait for the magical creature to return.

“ _Nei_ , _Mamma_ ,” Even says into the phone, volume turned up so he can hear over the waves lapping against the dock. “I don’t know anyone to drink with here anyway.”

Even loves his mother deeply, but this is exactly why he needed to leave Oslo. He talks to his mom once a day, and so he only has to feel like this for a max of ten minutes at a time now. He only has to pick up the concern from her voice, he doesn’t have to see it in every sideways glance, over the dinner table, in the canteen, in the texts Sonja constantly sent.

She finally gave up a few weeks ago.

Even wants to feel some sort of heartbreak over it. He wants to have at least come away with the well-earned man-pain from pushing her away, cutting her out. Isn’t this how people make art? Love and heartbreak?

He knows he loved her, at some point.

Ever since he arrived in Galalog, it all seems like something that happened to someone else. He doesn’t even feel much empathy towards the story when he plays it in his head. It’s like a book you’re assigned in class. Maybe if you’d picked it up off a shelf yourself, you’d find beauty in it, but Even is stuck with this tale and he’d be lying if he wasn’t going to forget all of it as soon as the semester ended.

He’s already forgetting.

“I’ve mostly just been walking around town and drawing. I’ve been writing a little, too. There’s a dock attached to the cabin property. I’m actually on it now,” Even says. “You’d think it was cool.”

“Oh?” his mother replies. “Your father and I will have to - oh, that’s him getting home. I have to go, honey. I’ll call you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Even says, smiling with his eyes. It’s odd. Even keeps thinking his mother is going to ask to visit but it’s like every time she’s about to, something interrupts or distracts her. It’s an intense relief for Even. “Talk to you later.”

“ _Elsker deg,_ ” she says.

“ _Elsker deg osgå._ ”

Once he hangs up, he plugs a pair of headphones in and continues to stare at the waves. They’re a dark green today, unbroken by mysteriously dry curls or curious eyes. It’s been almost a week since Even saw him, but every time he’s on the dock it feels like there are eyes on him. He’d think he hallucinated it, except that’s not his kind of crazy. His fingers drum impatiently on the wood beneath his crossed legs.

The song ends and a new one begins. Even’s heart speeds when he realizes it’s the same song that was playing when he first saw the mermaid. That’s when it hits him that he’d forgotten his headphones that day, and while it seems ridiculous, Even supposes it doesn’t hurt to try and recreate the original circumstances of their encounter.

He pulls the headphones out and turns up the volume as loud as it will go. It still feels insignificant against the sounds of the wind and water.

He wasn’t watching last time either. He thinks about the panic in the creature’s eyes when Even spotted him. It makes sense he wouldn’t want to be seen. Considering Even had no idea mermaids were real, he guessed they weren’t in the habit of showing themselves.

He doesn’t have his sketch book today, so he settles for laying back against the floating dock and shutting his eyes.

“If you’re out there, I promise I don’t want to hurt you. If you’re worried about me exposing you, I wouldn’t do that either. I just think it would be really cool to have a mermaid for a friend,” Even speaks slow, just filling the air with his voice. “Hmm, Mermaid... You didn’t look like a _maid_ but the term merman sounds kind of stupid to me. Like _man_ bun. Is it really necessary to have two words? Do mermaids even ascribe to human concepts of gender…?”

He’s more talking to himself than anything. A new song is playing, a sweeter contributor to Even’s eclectic, vaguely 90s inspired playlist. Out of words and promises, Even begins to sing along softly. His voice falters slightly when he swears he hears the sound of something breaking the surface of the water. He forces himself to finish the verse, though, skin prickling. He can feel yes on him. If he just wants to prove to himself this isn’t a new form of crazy, he could just open his eyes and look, catch a glimpse before the creature flees again.

But that’s not what Even wants - and he’s never been very good at denying himself what he wants. The plucky opening of _Meet Virginia_ shatters what would be a mystical moment.

It’s perfect. Even couldn’t have picked it better.

“Don’t run away,” Even says softly and waits a moment. It’s only then that he tips his head to the side and opens his eyes. “... _Halla._ ”

Dark eyes blink at him. _An angel in the wrong element_ , is the first thought that crosses Even’s head. He looks so delicate, with cupid bow lips, pink cheeks, and yellow hair curling by his temples. He looks like he’s quivering, like he’s not running, but one wrong move from Even and he would be.

God, Even wishes he was a more careful person.

Instead he smiles wide and the mermaid’s lips part a fraction, a tiny gasp quickly swallowed by the water.

“You like the music,” Even says, and it’s not a question. The boy swallows and blinks rapidly again as he glances at Even’s phone. “Do you want to listen with me?”

The mermaid doesn’t say anything. Perhaps he can’t speak, though he _seems_ to be understanding Even’s words.

Even tells him the names of the songs as they change. He can’t take his eyes off the mermaid’s face and is too distracted by it to say anything else.

The mermaid stays. He stays until they’ve sunk a foot with the tide and Even’s phone is hanging onto the last six percent of its battery life. He stays until he seems to hear something in the distance and starts. For the first time in over two hours he looks out towards the fjord. He drops lower until the waterline is right below his eyes. He glances back at Even and hesitates. Even doesn’t look away, he tries to hold him there with his eyes alone.

Then the mermaid dives, tail flashing above the water like a confirmation, like a friendly wave goodbye.

Even whispers to himself when the ripples disappear and the evidence is gone.

“ _Wow_ …”

 

o o o

 

Isak swims rapidly away from the dock and the music and the boy whose eyes turn into half moons when he smiles. He picks up speed and angles himself towards the surface, breaking and twisting like a great white shark before letting himself slam into the waves. Bubbles explode around him and he lets himself drift for just a moment. He doesn’t need to breath underwater, but for some reason he’s craving the feeling of air in his lungs. He floats to the surface, moving lazily now. The sun rolls along the horizon, like it’s repelled by the towering hills that surround Galalogfjord. In a few months they’ll swallow it again, spitting it back up in the spring.

Raucous laughter greets Isak when he arrives at a place they call the Great Rocks. The stony little islands protrude from the sea far enough away from the shore that nobody on shore would be able to make anything out. Humans don’t come here, almost as if the rocks are invisible to them. It’s also, notably, the home of the local pack of selkies.

“ _Hei_ , _Smal!_ ” Eva, a pretty female selkie, shouts as he approaches.

Clearly it isn’t fish they’re consuming today. There’s a veritable party happening atop the rocks and Isak can’t help but smile. Mahdi and Magnus seem to be racing through bottles of beer, while Chris and Vilde cheer them on. Jonas watches on with a more reserved smile, plucking at an instrument made of whalebone and baleen. Even Sana, the seawitch of Galalogfjord, sits a little apart from the crowd, watchful eyes softened with amusement.

“ _Hei,_ Skinnyboy _,_ ” Jonas says.

“ _Navneløse,_ ” Sana greets and Jonas shoots her his usual concerned side-eye.

In spite of common proximity, the two of them never seem to connect. Selkies tend to group into packs of boys and girls like tight knit family groups. Even opposite sex mates usually stick to their own small packs, coming together with their mate intermittently. Jonas was the unspoken head of the the Galalogfjord boys, and in spite of having no relation to them whatsoever, Sana seemed to have taken responsibility for watching over the girls. She seems to watch over the whole fjord, really, and though she claims to be nothing but a minor sea witch, Isak has always felt there’s something more to her. Whatever the reason, her eyes always seemed a little sharper on Jonas, like she was holding him to a higher standard that he wasn’t always meeting. Whatever it was it made his eyes a little sharper on her in return.

Jonas looks away from her and back to Isak, who’s settled himself into a shallow pool at waterline.

“Where have you been all day?” Jonas asks in the rolling selkie tongue. Jonas offers him a beer, but upon recognizing the label, Isak wrinkles his nose and shakes his head, thanking Jonas anyway. Jonas chuckles. “Always such a snob.”

Isak rolls his eyes.

“So?” Jonas presses, and Isak looks down, trying to hide the rapid turning of his mind.

“I was helping Eskild collect shells. Noora is redecorating,” Isak says.

Isak has been told many times by the nixies that smelly selkie boys are not allowed into their cave, so Isak is confident Jonas will never be able to catch his lie.

“Why didn’t Noora go with him? Or Linn?” Jonas asks, switching from a selkie melody to something that sounds more human. Jonas likes human music, too.

Isak chooses to respond to the question he actually has a good answer for.

“Linn went back to sleep.”

Linn sleeps a lot. Sometimes for a few weeks, sometimes even for years at a time.

Jonas looks at Isak a minute longer and then shrugs. The hair on the back of Isak’s neck raises and he notices Sana is looking at him. She narrows her eyes, raises one brow high. Isak tears his gaze away, afraid of what she can read in it.

Isak rests his head on the rocks and lets the fjord wash over his tail. He thinks of how the boy on the dock dipped and bobbed his head during every song he really liked.

Isak wants to ask Jonas if he’s heard of a human band called _Nas_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all like it so far. Let me know what you think! Next chapter will be up soon!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to [Felicia](https://hamiltrashton.tumblr.com) for her beta read and help with the Norwegian details! I'm so so excited for you guys to read this chapter. I really enjoyed writing it!
> 
>  **Translations:**  
>  _Gull_ \- Gold  
>  _Gullklump_ \- Gold Nugget (common term of endearment)  
>  _Havfrue_ \- Mermaid  
>  _Den lille havfrue_ \- The Little Mermaid (original Danish title)  
>  _Navneløse_ \- the nameless one  
>  _Smal_ \- Skinny
> 
> Also Yiṣḥāq is a Hebrew expression meaning "he laughs/will laugh", from which the name Isaac is an anglicized version. In the bible, Abraham laughed upon hearing that he would have a son with his wife Sara, even though they were very old. The Isaac quote is from Genesis and is part of the above prophecy.

Even doesn’t have to wait long to see the mermaid again. Either Even’s figured it out, or the mermaid is just convinced that if he was going to try something he would have given some sign by now. Even goes into Galalog and buys the best bluetooth speaker he can find. It’s not _amazing_ and it uses up most of what spending money Even has for the next month, but it’s worth it when a blonde head pops up like a bobber after Even’s only been sitting on the dock for ten minutes.

He’s not frozen this time, and Even gets to see how he moves, cutting softly through the water in loops and arcs, ear tilted up to catch the new sound.

“ _Halla_ ,” Even greets. “Much better, right?”

The mermaid only blinks in response, but he’s looking on so intently that Even is sure the purchase was a good one.

“Okay… since you liked _Illmatic_ , today we’ll do some more hip-hop, and maybe hit on some punk rock if you’re feeling up for it,” Even says, laughing when the mermaid just raises a brow at him. “Oh, you already versed in punk rock, then? An expert?”

The boy sinks a little in the  water, looking away - but bubbles disturb the surface of the water around his cheeks and Even realises, as the mermaid’s eyes crinkle, that he’s laughing.

Even needs to hear it loud and clear.

He goes through the rest of Nas’s discogrophy, and then moves on to some _Tupac_. The mermaid is clearly into it. Even even catches him bobbing his head as he watches Even do the same.

When they hit a particularly thudding intro, Even gets into it and the mermaid plays along swinging his head back and forth. Even cranks the volume up.

“Drop the bass!” he shouts.

And that’s what does it.

The boy’s head tips back, and the laugh is nearly silent - but it pushes his pink cheeks up, crowds them under his eyes until he’s sure the mermaid can hardly see. His teeth are white, with just enough space between them to make his smile unique.

Even smiles, and smiles, and smiles.

“I need something to call you,” Even says suddenly, and the boy raises a brow again, almost challenging. “I’m Even, by the way. Do you have a name?”

He shrugs, smiling as he looks away towards the shore.

“Fine,” Even says. “I’ll give you one.”

He raises both brows now, looking directly at Even.

Even’s backpack is sitting nearby, and he reaches in to uncover a sticky pastry. He doesn’t want to rush this. This is important.

“You want some?” Even asks.

Do mermaids eat the same things humans do? If this one does, would he take anything from a human? The mermaid’s eyes bounce between the pastry and Even’s eyes, calculating. Even breaks it in two, and sets one half on the baggie it came in. He places it at the edge of the dock and then scoots back, out of arm’s reach.

The boy waits just another few seconds before swimming right up to the dock and taking the pastry between his fingers. He swims backwards, but not too far, before taking a hesitant bite. He chews slowly before a wide grin spreads across his face.

“You like it?”

The boy nods and takes another bite. He’s never been so close before and Even bet if he leaned over the side of the dock, he might be able to see the mermaid’s tail through the water. He doesn’t, though, too afraid of ruining the momentary ease between them.

Even wracks his brain as he finishes his danish.

“Hmm… What about Alexander?” Even begins. The mermaid blinks. “No… Harald?”

Even runs through a series of common names, watching the amusement grow on the sea creature’s face.

“We can’t call you Nils. I knew a Nils in Oslo. Total prick.”

The mermaid makes more bubbles, floating back and forth in front of Even a bit, drifting closer and further away.

“Oh, I know. _Joey_ ,” Even says, and then in English, “ _How you doin’?_ ”

The boy gets a sort of half amused half concerned look on his face that makes Even chuckle.

“What? Are you more of a Chandler?” he asks. “Don’t tell me you’re a _Ross_.”

The sea creature is shaking his head, baffled expression still in place. Even thinks he might have huffed out a laugh, but the wind takes it before Even’s ears can catch it.

“Too dated for you?” Even asks. “Fine fine…”

Even’s running his mouth and he knows it. He’s usually more reserved with strangers but he feels desperate. He knows he’s not flying - this has nothing to do with _that_. He’s grounded, and yet he feels like he’ll say anything to keep this mythical boy looking at him.

A bit of wind has begun running through the valley between the cliffs that enclose either side of the fjord, sending choppy waves to cut up the surface of the water. It forces the sea creature into movement to stay steady. He dips under the water for a moment, and Even’s stomach drops momentarily. Then there’s a small splash and a blonde head appears on the opposite side of the dock, the side more sheltered from the wind. Even tilts his head curiously as the creature pushes his apparently dry hair away from his face.

“Leo,” he says and the boy tilts his head back, eyes going skeptical again. Even wants to insist, images of pools and wet kisses dancing in his head. “ _Leonardo._ I’m just saying that you could pull it off. _Leo, Leo…_ ”

The mermaid is shaking his head, and there’s laughter in his eyes and smile on his lips and Even hangs on the edge of his metaphorical seat to see if it bubbles over.

“Okay, not Leo then,” Even says trying to think fast enough to ride the wave he’s created. He needs that final push, he knows it. “I’ve got it!”

He brings his fist down into his palm for emphasis, eyes glittering.

“Ariel!”

The mermaid’s jaw drops and his face morphs into a mixture of mirth and affront. He shakes his head wildly. While he doesn’t know _Friends_ , apparently _The Little Mermaid_ is less of a mystery. It’s fascinating.

“What?! It’s a gorgeous name. I think it suits you,” Even says.

Suddenly Even’s face is splattered with seawater. His own mouth pops open in an expression of exaggerated shock.

“It’s a perfect name!”

More drops of water hit his cheeks.

_“Ariel!”_

Another little splash.

“That’s the one!”

Even tastes salt and sputters.

And finally the mermaid _really_ laughs.

It’s louder and lower than Even expects, a clean _hah-hah!_ that breaks past his lips and bursts into the cold air. It’s his body that continues the laughter, carries it on with crinkled eyes, shaking shoulders, and and a smile so wide it warps his cheeks.

It’s the best thing that Even’s ever seen. He’s sure of it.

And that’s when it comes to Even.

_Yiṣḥāq._

_He laughs._

Last year Even got really into the Abrahamic religions for a few weeks. He started with the Hebrew bible, before deciding that he should memorize the Quran in Arabic. In spite of the discomfort of looking back on that episode, Even suddenly believes the universe was simply preparing him for this moment.

The boy is still looking at him, face overflowing with something that Even can’t call anything but joy. Genesis is running through Even’s head and happening right before him.

_And you shall call his name Isaac._

Even quiets as the rightness settles over him. The mermaid’s smile fades too, slowly and softly, as he sees the change come over Even. It feels like a falling feather settling to earth.

“Can I call you Isak?”

The music died with Even’s phone a while ago, and the wind has quieted to the point where they can hear little waves lapping against the side of the dock. Neither boy moves, long seconds rolling away. Even’s heart beats faster as he finds nothing readable in the gaze he’s determinedly holding.

Finally, Isak nods.

 

o o o

 

_Isak. Isak. Isak._

The name is running through his head again and again. It’s all he can think about - that and _Even_ . Two names spinning around his brain. _Isak_. Each time he thinks of it, it echoes in Even’s voice and it sinks a little deeper.

“ _Gullklump_ , come over here and pay attention to me,” Eskild says from across the room, apparently bored of singing with Noora. “Stop reading. You’re always reading.”

“Reading is a good hobby, Eskild. You shouldn’t make fun of _Gull_ for it,” Noora chides.

Isak rolls his eyes and tucks _Den lille havfrue_ back into one of the many holes in the rock wall where he keeps all the books and other items he’s collected over the years. He actually has four different versions of The Little Mermaid - from the original Danish copy to the picture book version. All of them are from Eskild, who finds endless amusement in his perceived similarity between Isak and the Disney Princess. Isak has obviously never seen the film, but he wishes he could have told Even that he isn’t that clever.

Isak isn’t _totally_ sure why he isn’t speaking to Even. It’s not that he can’t, but speaking to a human… it feels like committing to the fact that it’s all happening. If he doesn’t talk, it can all still be a daydream he and Even are sharing. If he doesn’t speak, he won’t give anything away, won’t give up any more truths beyond his own existence. If he talks, it makes it real.

 _He gave you a name. How much realer can it get?_ He thinks mockingly.

“ _Gull…!”_ Eskild calls again, dragging out the name, and Isak realizes he’s spaced out.

He swims over to them, settles on the woven kelp bed besides Eskild. Noora is adjusting the position of the lights hanging from the ceiling of the cave. They’re powered by a strong bioluminescence, and she adds garlands of white shells around them. Eskild’s hands immediately go to Isak’s hair when he settles. There are bracelets of seaweed, shells, and bone around his wrists, and they  follow his movements sluggishly, caught by the water. The mermaid huffs in disapproval but suffers the nixie to begin weaving parts of his hair into intricate little braids.

Eskild chatters for a bit and Isak’s attention fades in and out. He doesn’t mean to interrupt, but the unrelated question jumps from his lips without permission.

“Eskild, can you re-teach me how shapeshift into a human?”

If Eskild is annoyed by Isak’s lack of commitment to his own conversation, he doesn't show it.

“Oh?!” he asks, and steals one of Noora’s garlands. “Why the sudden interest? Even when I taught you after you came here, you never went ashore.”

Isak shrugs, keeping his face passive. He already has a lie ready.

“The Great Rock parties are getting a little boring since they’re the only kind I go to. I eventually want to go into Galalog with Jonas and the others,” Isak says.

“Noora! Look at our little _Gullklump!_ He’s growing up,” Eskild cheers. “Just you wait, he’ll be banging humans and breaking their hearts before you know it.”

“ _Eskild,”_ Noora chastises.

The male nixie rolls his eyes dramatically.

“I’m just saying, with a face like _Gull’s_ he could give a siren a run for their money. Look at him! All innocent and cute-faced…”

Isak’s face is red. He hopes they just assume it’s from Eskild’s comments on his looks, and not his accidentally hitting far closer to the truth than Isak ever meant for him to get. Luckily, Noora seems equal to object equally to the direction the conversation has taken.

“Do you always have to be so crass?” she asks, but then turns to Isak. “ _Gull_ , it’s not a bad thing to want to go into town and interact with humans, but you have to be very careful. Our shapeshifting isn’t the same as the selkies, who truly have a seal and a human form. Ours takes practice, and it’s not permanent. If you make a mistake and expose yourself, the humans will try to take you.”

This isn’t the first time that Isak has heard a lecture like this from Noora.

“It’s different than if it were one of us, too. You must be _extra_ careful. Humans have mostly forgotten what nixies and selkies and other Seafolk are, but they are obsessed with mermaids. Humans are dangerous, _Gull_. No matter how kind Galalog seems, we can never forget that,” Noora finishes. Isak nods to show he understands but avoids her eyes. She looks away, returns her focus to the cave. “Eskild, I’m going to go collect some more algae for the lights. I’ll be back later.”

“Okay, Noora,” Eskild says as he fixes another tiny shell into one of the braids in Isak’s hair.

Noora tucks her pale green hair behind her pointed ears as she turns and heads through the cave mouth. Isak only speaks once he’s sure she’s gone.

“Why is Noora so afraid of humans?” Isak asks.

“I’m surprised you’ve never asked before,” Eskild says, and it sends a pang of guilt through Isak’s chest. Ever since he’s met Even, it feels like the world has begun to focus into startling clarity. How long has he been drifting aimlessly through clouded waters? He has no idea. Eskild continues. “Noora is afraid because a long time ago a human broke her heart.”

Isak glances over his shoulder but Eskild is focused on Isak’s hair.

“Broke her heart?”

“He was a sea captain named William. Back then there was more magic in the world, and we lived in a busy port near Oslo. They met by chance and fell madly in love. He even knew that she was a nixie, and they still loved each other. Now, William’s father was a very rich man from London. Eventually, William’s business in Oslo finished, and he was to return with goods to London. He asked Noora to come with him and she agreed. Noora’s magic is strong, but even she can only hold a human form for so long. Then, as we all do, she had to return to the sea. It worked well, aboard William’s ship. When they got to London though, they didn’t leave again to sail across world as William had promised. His father wanted him to stay, learn how to run their business. So Noora was all but alone, bound to the water and an empty boat. Finally she couldn’t take it anymore. She left, returned to the North. She left him a letter… it told him where she’d gone, where to find her if he wanted to sail away with her.”

It feels odd, seeing Noora in such a different light. These days she seems so consistent. She takes care of their home. She braids the selkie girls’ hair and makes sure they don’t lose track of their skins when they go ashore. It’s uncomfortable and painful to think of her all alone on some ship across the sea, broken hearted.

“Did he ever come?” Isak asks quietly.

“ _Nei…_ ” Eskild says, sighing before seeming to shake himself out of the melancholy that’s settled around them. “If you remember anything I’ve ever said, _Gullklump_ , remember that humans are good for two things: the invention cocktails and sex. They can’t be trusted with the heart of the sea.”

Isak doesn’t know how to respond.

_Can I call you Isak?_

He swallows harshly.

Eskild finally finishes with Isak’s hair, humming in satisfaction over his work.

“You should start leaving those shells in if you want to go ashore in the future. I’ll weave you some kelp bands, too. You’ll need something to turn into clothes when you transform, _lille havfrue_.”

“Okay,” Isak says, and then remembers to say something he probably hasn’t said enough in the past. “Thank you.”

 

The fourth time that Isak goes to see Even, it’s been less than twenty four hours since Even named him. He’s got his sketchbook with him again, and when he spots Isak he simply raises both brows in greeting.

“ _Halla_ , Isak,” he says, and it sends a shudder from the top of Isak’s head to the tip of his tail. Even’s eyes go to his hair. “Oh! That’s cool.”

To be honest, Isak forgot he had the shells in and it brings a pink tint to his cheeks. Eskild took him to a little cove the previous evening and re-taught him the spells it takes to take the form of a human. Sat on the pebbly beach, Isak only managed to hold the form for about thirty seconds. He hadn’t even attempted to stand up or turn his shells into any form of clothing. It was a little frustrating, but Eskild promised that the learning curve was steep.

Isak sure hopes so.

The sun is out today and, this time of the year, it seems to hyper-saturate everything in Galalogfjord. The sky's a deep cyan; the steep hillsides are an almost violent emerald color, and Even’s hair looks like dried yellow wheat.

When Isak hears the sound of selkies singing in the distance and turns to go, Even explains that he’ll be starting school the next day, but he’ll come to the dock afterwards. Isak resists the urge to nod in acknowledgement, still unwilling to _admit_ that he fully plans to continue seeing this human boy.  

They fall into a pattern over the next week, and Isak gives himself until he can’t count their visits on his fingers before he really has to start thinking about what he’s doing. The first day or so Even just tells Isak about his new school, and Isak wants to ask questions about why this is his first year in Galalog, but he’s restricted by his self-imposed muteness. As the week passes, Even starts having enough coursework that he does some of it on the dock - Isak understands it’s probably just for something to do, as one can only hold a one sided conversation for so long. Even tells Isak about his classmates, and his teachers, and his subjects.

On Thursday, he gets really riled up when Isak seems uninterested in his reading of the Romeo and Juliet play he’s studying in English, and chucks it over the side of the dock.

Isak lunges for it, but doesn’t manage to stop himself and the book from sinking into the water. Out of habit, his touch protects the book. He tosses it back to Even, whose brows furrow as soon as he catches it. He thumbs through the pages, confirming that it’s as dry as a bone. Isak curses internally.

“So… you really are magic, then,” he says. “I thought…  maybe mermaids are just a different kind of sentient animal, but there’s really more, isn’t there?”

Obviously, Isak doesn’t answer.

 

It goes on like that until Even’s been in school over a week, and they’ve spent an entire Saturday going through Even’s ska collection. On Sunday, Isak’s presence is required at the Great Rocks where Jonas and the others are having a gathering. There are other selkies visiting from out of Galalogfjord, packs from the nearby waters. Most of them have become familiar to Isak over the years. It always blows Isak’s mind just how many selkies there seems to be. Sana says they’re some of the only Seafolk left that still exist in great numbers. Isak supposes with their seal and human bodies, they can still fit in in places where Isak and the nixies would never be able to hide their existence from humans.

It means that Isak won’t see Even today, and the reality is bothering him more than he knows it should. He knows he hasn’t promised Even anything but, in spite of a whole morning of telling himself to go straight to the Rocks, Isak ended up swimming by Even’s dock and placing an perfectly round, black pebble at the end of the dock. He hopes Even understands.

Currently, Isak is hanging out at the bottom of the busiest Great Rock, practicing transforming into a human while Magnus and Jonas cheer him on. Isak knew it would get back to them if he tried to hide his practices with Eskild, so he didn’t bother. Now the Selkie boys are chomping at the bit, excited for him to join in on one of their adventures into Galalog. Isak takes a deep sip of his beer and then tries to focus. He gets the shells to turn into a simple, tunic-like garment, and he wiggles unfamiliar toes into the water.

“Woohoo!” Magnus cheers. “Dude, you’re already doing so much better than you were at the beginning of the week!”

“Impressive, Skinnyboy,” Jonas says.

They’re not wrong. Isak can almost hold this form for a full five minutes now, and when he walks he _almost_ doesn’t look like a newborn reindeer calf.

Isak spots Eva talking to a pretty faced selkie boy from the fjord north of theirs, and he notices Mahdi chatting up one of the open water coastal pack. Magnus and Jonas are snickering to each other, debating whether or not Mahdi has any real chance with her.

Isak wonders what they would think of Even. He forces himself not to think too hard about the fact that he’ll probably never get to know.

The mermaid’s musings are interrupted by Vilde and Sana approaching with a clanking black bag.

“ _Hei!”_ Vilde greets. “Empties?”

They each hand her a few bottles and Sana’s eyes narrow at them as she notices one that’s slipped between a pair of rocks. She fishes it out.

“Shameful. You’re all as bad as the humans,” Sana says.

“Whoops!” Magnus says.

“It was an accident,” Isak says.

None of them would ever litter on purpose, no matter how skeptical Sana’s gaze is.

Jonas pushes himself up off the rocks.

“We’re out. Magnus, help me carry some more back?” he says.

“You want some more, _Smal?_ ” Magnus asks and Isak nods.

The blonde selkie hops up and follows Jonas up the craggy slope to where they’ve filled a big divot in the rocks with ice and full bottles. Vilde moves towards the next group to collect more finished drinks, but Sana pauses, staring down at Isak, who’s narrowing his eyes at this point in an attempt to hold a human form.

A second later it slips and he’s got a tail again, chest bare against the seabreeze.

“ _Navneløse_ ,” she greets him directly, and Isak is about to reply when her gaze gets even more intense, head tilting to the side. “Except… that’s not right. There’s a name now…”

Isak feels his throat tighten and he has no idea how, but she knows. She’s waiting now, giving him an opportunity to explain.

He keeps his mouth shut.

“Fine,” Sana says. “But don’t forget, _havfrue_ , that we are all a part of Galalogfjord. She keeps us safe, and she knows every secret. She won’t expose you, but the cliffs are full of echoes, and nothing secret lasts forever.”

Isak presses his lips together, his tail coiling nervously around a boulder. She glances up at the sound of Jonas and Magnus ambling back down towards the water. She looks back and considers Isak just a moment longer. Then she speaks, too low for the approaching selkies to hear, but all too audible to the mermaid on the shore.

“Beware the changing winds… Isak.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts!!!
> 
> Also, if you liked this, I made an little tumblr post about it, and you can reblog it [HERE](https://moonlitbird.tumblr.com/post/155302768008/it-comes-in-waves-chapter-two-rating-mature)!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to [Kath](http://tummylinson.tumblr.com) for her read through and help. And than you to [Felicia](http://hamiltrashton.tumblr.com) for her readthrough and her help with Norwegian!
> 
>  **Relevant Translations for Chapter 3:**  
>  _Hade!_ \- functionally translates to an informal goodbye, literally means “Have it”, shortened from “Have a good time until we meet again” (roughly)  
>  _Smal_ \- Skinny  
>  _Havgutt_ \- Merboy (roughly)  
>  _Gull_ \- Gold  
>  _Gullklump_ \- Gold Nugget  
>  _Lille Havfrue_ \- Little Mermaid

When Even found the rock that Isak left for him, it was a matte black. Only a few days later, it’s a shiny jet color, polished by his hands. He fiddles with it while he’s in class, runs his thumb around the edge of it, hands stuffed in his pockets, as he walks through town. It’s nearly as shiny as the scales in Isak’s tail, which Even has seen up close now. The mermaid was lured up onto the dock so Even could show him the photos and diagrams in his biology textbook. For whatever reason, Isak is particularly interested in Even’s biology.

All Even knows is that he absolutely failed the quiz the next day because, instead of studying, he’d been trying to catalogue every new detail. The form of Isak’s tail doesn’t differ much from the archetype in Even’s mind. It’s got a soft curve to it, widening out just a little before thinning as it curls towards the tip of his tail. It’s a little longer and more dextrous than a fish’s, able to curl once around the dock-post absently as he looks over Even’s arm. He’s got a pair of small fins below where his hips would be, a soft dorsal along the back. His scales are for the most part a slatey blue-grey, flecked with gold throughout. The largest fin - his _claudal_ fin, Even googled it - looks simultaneously powerful and delicate, cloudy grey shot with sunburts.

It was all Even wanted, to reach out and touch. Would it feel wet or try? Would the muscled tail feel firm to the touch or would it give like human skin? He hadn’t worked up the courage, though.

Even traipses his way across town, heading down the gravel road that leads to the cabin that he’s slowly but surely improving upon. He’s pretty sure he’s got all the spiders out at least. He drops his backpack off in the tiny foyer, not planning on doing any coursework until later. Though, he does fish a small baggie out of the front pocket of his backpack before moving onto the kitchen to turn the contents into something smokeable. He finally found someone who had a hook-up at school, which was a relief as he used up the stash he had left over from Oslo about a week ago.

When Even heads outside, he’s got a joint behind his ear and his favorite jacket on his shoulders. It won’t be long before he has to pull out his winter coat and he’s taking advantage while he can. He’s also got a big duvet thrown over his arm and music tucked into his pockets. The days are shortening, but the sun is still punching through the silver clouds, sending slanting beams of light down on the fjord. The waters are calm. Today feels special, Even is sure.

Even’s dock is in a small inlet. Most days it offers some shelter from the weather, and it always provides protection from prying eyes. Today the wind doesn’t reach them, and the water is like glass. Isak has beat him to the dock and Even sees him swimming in slow circles and arcs. Isak rolls and then turns, flashing his tail above the water as he disappears from sight. A moment later he breaks the surface, launching straight into the air. It’s lazy, his fall relaxed and uncontrolled. Even’s rooted to the spot as he watches Isak’s body twist before it hits the surface of the water.

His heart beats against his windpipe from where it’s lodged against his throat.

Even’s feet are quiet on the wooden planks when he finally convinces them to move. He spreads the duvet out as a cushion and settles down on the end of the dock before Isak resurfaces, pulling out his phone and speaker and putting on something upbeat and acoustic.

When Isak pops his head up next, Even gets to witness the change in him as he notices that he’s not alone. He sees Even out of the corner of his eye, and a wide smile is fixed on his lips before he can even turn to swim for the dock.

“ _Hei_ , Isak,” Even says and Isak waves his tail out of the water in greeting.

He doesn’t even pause before pushing himself out of the water this time and Even’s heart races, though he keeps his face cool as Isak settles on the edge of the blanket and seems to take an inventory of what Even’s brought with him. The shells he's been wearing recently are around his neck today, resting against his collarbones.

“Ever since I brought you that toasty, you’re always looking to steal my food,” Even says. On Monday he brought the mermaid cheesybread, which he seemed to adore. He’s brought it a few times since, always to Isak’s delight. “You’re like a pigeon. I get the warning signs about feeding birds now. I’ll never get rid of you.”

Isak face takes on an expression of wild affront and his tail, which is still dipping into the fjord, rises to flick drops of water in Even’s direction.

“Hey hey! You’re going to get the blanket wet,” Even says. “Alright. I’m sorry. You’re not a pigeon. You’re a beautiful, beautiful rooster. One of those exotic ones with an afro.”

Isak doesn’t look sure that that’s any better, but Even moves forward, pulling the joint out from behind his ear. He fishes a lighter out of his pocket and lights up. He feels Isak watching closely as he takes his first hit. He holds the joint between his lips as he looks up at the mermaid, who’s tongue darts out to wet his bottom lip. Even releases smoke slowly.

“Have you ever smoked before?” Isak shakes his head. “Do you want to try it?”

Isak considers a moment, eyes narrowed in that way of his, and then nods. Even begins to hand over the joint but pauses.

“It won’t hurt you or anything, right? Weed isn’t poisonous to mermaids or something right? I suppose there’s fire involved…” Even muses.

Isak shakes his head at the same as he rolls his eyes. He reaches out and takes the joint from Even’s fingers.

“You just inhale and hold it as long as you can,” Even explains.

He supposes Isak has probably seen a lot of people smoke on the fishing docks, but it’s always a little different for marijuana. Isak adjusts himself so he can lean against the pole of the dock. Even can’t tear his eyes away as Isak brings the joint to his lips and inhales. The mermaid manages to hold it down for about six seconds before he chokes.

“Don’t worry,” Even smiles. “I’ve never seen anyone take their first hit without coughing.”

He crawls over to lean against the other pole so they’re sitting opposite each other at the end of the dock. Isak hold the back of his hand to his lips as he hands the joint back to Even.

Even takes another hit, holding it deep in his lungs before releasing it slowly into the sky. Mid exhale he glances over to catch Isak staring at him, face open and a little slack. Even’s eyes crinkle when Isak looks away sharply, color rising to his cheeks when he realizes he’s been caught out. His tail is drawing absent shapes on the surface of the water, like it’s got a mind of it’s own.

Thirty minutes later has them both laying down on Even’s duvet, Even on his back and Isak on his side. Even’s halfway through explaining the entire plot of _Wild Target_ with Isak’s eyes burning into the side of his face. He wants to look back, but he’s learning that Isak won’t look if Even’s looking. Even knows it’s his own fault. He knows what his eyes are already saying. He knows it’s too much.

He can’t bring himself to be sorry, though.

“And then Rupert Grint - _he just_ \- he just stands up in the bath tub, right in front of Bill Nighy, and is like - he’s like, _well, what do you think then?”_

Even’s almost tearing up at the memory of the film. He drops his head to the side to look at Isak.

“I mean, _just like that!”_

Even keeps chuckling and Isak doesn’t look away this time. He has one arm tucked under his head, body curled into a c-shape on Even’s blanket. Even’s stomach twists a hundred different ways, like it knows what’s about to happen before Even’s brain does.

“I like it when you laugh.”

His voice is so low that if there were any wind it would have been carried away. But there’s no wind and there’re no waves.

There’s just a boy and a mermaid and the words between them.

Even rolls onto his side, mirrors Isak’s position.

“I thought… maybe you couldn’t talk,” Even whispers back.  

“I can.”

Isak is totally still, right down to his tail which is curled gently around the dock pole. Even doesn’t move either, afraid to shatter this new gift.

“Why haven’t you spoken before?”

Isak blinks, something vulnerable in his face that Even’s never seen in him before.

“I was scared,” Isak says.

“I know,” Even admits, resisting the urge to tuck a stray curl behind the mermaid’s ear.

“If I talk, there’s no way I can pretend this isn’t real,” Isak says. “That you aren’t…”

Even wants to point out the irony of Isak being the one who’s worrying about reality. He doesn’t.

“What’s wrong with real?” he asks instead.

Isak’s tail curls in closer to himself.

“Real means questions. Real means answers I shouldn’t give. It means ignoring everything I’ve everything I’ve ever been told,” Isak whispers.

“You don’t have to,” Even says softly. “You don’t have to tell me anything.”

Even can hear his heartbeat in his eardrums. They’re desperate, clawing for each word from Isak, from this beautiful creature. Isak still doesn’t look away. He swallows, and speaks.

“But I want to,” Isak confesses, no more than a breath.

Even thinks he might be trembling. He doesn’t think Isak can tell.

“Okay,” he says.

“Okay,” Isak says back.

A slow smile blooms and consumes Even’s expression as a thought crosses his mind. For some reason, the smile spreads to Isak’s as well.

“What?” the mermaid asks.

“You shouldn’t be scared of me telling anyone,” Even says, already giggling. “No one would believe me.”

“Why?”

“Think about it. _The Story of How Even Bech Naesheim Seduced a Mermaid with Hip Hop and Marijuana.”_

“What?!” Isak protests, and Even moves quickly when he doesn’t immediately protest the use of the word _seduced_.

“You’re the least magical mermaid ever,” Even says, body shaking with laughter now. “Is your tail even real or is this just some elaborate trick to get free weed?”

Isak’s jaw drops dramatically.

“I am the _most_ magical. Does this feel fake to you?” Isak says, tail coming down on Even.

It bats against him, hits him on the shoulder, softly cuffs his ear. Even laughs hard, curling in on himself.

“I don’t know. Feels like rubber,” Even says.

Isak scoffs, and then scoffs again. The high has worn off but Even still feels giddy.

Except then Isak’s gone.

There’s a splash and Even pushes himself up. Isak’s in the water, swimming backwards though jewel toned water with a suppressed smile on his face.

“Where are you going?!”

The mermaid looks proud of himself.

“Me and my rubber tail are going to go do magic without you,” he says. “ _Hade!”_

  


Isak turns away from the boy on the dock. He has no real intention of leaving, but he’s enjoying having the upperhand. At least, until there’s another splash. Isak spins to see that the dock is empty. He spots Even easily through the clear water.

He’s baffled.

Even’s head pops above the surface of the water. His hair is slicked back and rivulets of water run down his face. Isak’s tongue is dry in contrast.

“I bet I can swim faster than you,” Even says before Isak can even come up with a single word response to this development.

“ _Nei!_ That’s ridiculous,” Isak says.

Even turns his head to the side and raises his brows. Then he lunges towards the dock, which is only a few meters away. Even smacks his hand against it.

“See?”

“We weren’t racing,” Isak says.

“Yes, we were,” Even insists. “I just didn’t tell you.”

“That is _cheating!”_

Even still doesn’t look the slightest bit sorry - and it’s crazy, because they’ve been together for hours and hours over the past few weeks and Isak hasn’t said a word. This should be odd, but it isn’t. Perhaps, even without words, Isak hadn’t been as quiet as he’d meant to be.

“Fine, fine,” Even says. “We’ll have a do over. The first one to get to that rock over there wins. If I win you have to grant me a wish.”

Isak narrows his eyes. This is sounding a whole like the beginning of half the fairy tales in his Grimm book.

“What do I get? If I win,” Isak asks.

Even’s clothes are billowing around him and he must be pretty cold, but it’s still early September, so Isak isn’t too worried. The human thinks for a moment.

“I’ll make you cheesy toast every day for a week,” Even says.

“Are you saying that a magic wish is worth as a week of cheese toast?” Isak asks and Even just flashes his eyebrows at him. Isak narrows his eyes, and considers the fact that he can’t really grant magic wishes anyway. “Fine.”

Isak puts a hand on the dock and sets his sights on a large rock that’s jutting up out of the shallows.

“Ready?” Even prompts and Isak nods sharply. “Three, two, one… _go!”_

Isak dives, sliding under the water cleanly. He swims a few meters under the surface, where he can get up some good speed. It’s only a few seconds before he surfaces right next to the outcrop. He spins.

Even hasn’t moved, other than to lean back with both arms up on the dock, one hooked around the little ladder that drops from the dock into the water. It’s hard to tell at this distance, but the smile is easy to read in his body. Isak has been played. Even didn’t even try.

“Hey!” Isak shouts at him.

Then he dives back under the water. When he gets close to the dock, he sees some bubbles, and realises Even has pushed himself under the surface. Isak slows. Even’s clothes fan around him, denim jacket flaring like a cape, shirt billowing up to expose slivers of his stomach and the way his black jeans have certainly adhered to his lower half. His hair is moving with the currents, and his eyes are open, staring through the water as Isak approaches.

Isak pulls up when he gets close, swimming a little nearer than he meant to. Even looks down at him, and they’re so very close. Even doesn’t have as much control in the water. Maybe that’s why his hands come up to cup Isak’s face, to steady himself - but that doesn’t explain why he leans in. It doesn’t explain why Even’s lips are pressed against his own.

It certainly doesn’t explain why Isak’s pressing back. Bubbles float up between their faces when their lips part, only to come together again. One of Isak’s hands floats up, pads of his fingers coming to rest on Even’s sternum. There’s warmth there that the water hasn’t stolen.

It has, however, stolen all of Even’s breath. When it does, he kicks, trying to bring Isak to the surface with him. The mermaid hesitates, face slipping from Even’s grasp.

 _What am I doing?_ Isak thinks, as Even’s face breaks the surface. _What am I doing?_

Isak surfaces before Even has even settled his body against the ladder, and Isak only pushes him back into it, hands mirroring Even’s position only moments ago as the human sucks air into his lungs. Even’s lips are cold, but his tongue is warm, and it sends shuddering shakes down Isak’s spine. Even’s fingers card through his hair, and his wet clothes are rough against Isak’s skin, and he’s never wanted anything like he wants this. He feels powerful and vibrant and terrified of what’s coursing through his veins in this moment.

Four more kisses and Isak doesn’t think anything at all. He thinks of nothing beyond Even’s lips and Even’s thumbs pressing into his cheekbones, into the hollow below his throat. Isak tries to copy Even’s motions, feels heat rise in his cheeks at the sounds their lips make as they meet and part and meet and part. Even’s hand fists softly at his nape -

And then Isak is breaking the kiss, head twisting away from Even and towards the fjord. He feels Even’s fingertips on his jaw, trying to urge him back - and he almost goes.

“What is it?” Even asks.

“The Whales…” Isak breathes, his brain feeling like it’s full of fog. “I have to go.”

Even still turns Isak’s head back towards the shore. He catches Isak’s eyes.

“Okay,” he says.

He presses their lips together, without intent, and Isak almost melts into the sea. He doesn’t know what he’s feeling or how to process it. Even nuzzles their noses together and then presses a soft kiss to the very corner of Isak’s lips. They part on a shaky exhale. Seconds pass and Isak feels Even’s eyes on his face.

Then he forces himself to turn away, not confident that if he catches Even’s eyes again that he’ll ever be released. He’s already almost to the mouth of Even’s inlet when he hears a shout.

“Isak!” Even shouts, and Isak looks over his shoulder to see Even sitting on the edge of the dock, hands cupped around his mouth. “I got my wish anyway!”

The water almost eats the words but Isak hears them. He pauses and then a laugh pops from his lungs. He shakes his head in disbelief.

The sun is setting, turning the sky orange, and Isak dives into the water. He gains speed and breaks the surface, twisting in the air, suspended against the sky for a moment. The jump is half in joy and half for Even. He hits the water with barely a splash.

Then Isak speeds towards the mouth of Galalogfjord.

 

The whale song is powerful, and having been so far inland, everyone is already there when Isak finds the humpbacks. There’s three of them - familiar creatures that pass by Galalogfjord once every few years, bringing news from their wanderings. The selkies are jubilantly swimming around the bodies of the two closest whales, chattering happily. Only Sana and the Nixies actually speak their language, but a lot can still be said without words.

Isak knows that better than anyone, now.

Noora and Eskild are swimming around the head of the leading whale, the oldest female. Sana sits cross legged on her head as they talk.

“ _Smal!”_

There’s a chorus of greetings when the others spot him. He endures a few hello headbutts as he falls into swimming patterns with the lithe seafolk. Isak over under one long fin, under a barnicled belly. When he passes by the whale’s eye he pauses, coasting along side the great creature. She seems to look deep into into him, but Isak doesn’t know what she sees.

The humpbacks start singing again, and the selkies sing their own songs back, their topedo-like bodies darting through the water around the behemoths. Isak joins them for a while, lets himself join in on their joy. The passing of the whales is always bittersweet to Isak, but today he doesn’t feel the weight that normally comes from their visits.

Instead, Isak feels the lingering traces of kisses on his lips. The physical high has long drained away, but the high derived from Even’s words, from Even’s laughter, from Even’s touch, from _Even_ , is much more lasting.

So Isak tries singing, too. He knows no mermaid songs, and he can’t sing like the nixies, but he joins in with the selkies. Eva and Vilde notice first and blow bubbles happily. They swim up beside him, and together they make tight corkscrews around the body of one whale and then the other.

“Ay, _Smal_ is singing, too!” Magnus shouts, and claps his flippers together.

“ _Ey_ , _Havgutt!”_ Mahdi cheers.

Isak is momentarily knocked around by the selkie boys before they resume their spiraling swimming patterns. Jonas swims away last, one deep eye considering the mermaid. Isak smiles at him, wide and toothy. It seems to satisfy him, a happy light returning to his eyes.

They swim with the whales, until the mouth of Galalogfjord is behind them and Sana leads them home. When they’re safely back in the fjord, Noora and Sana share the news from the whales. It’s interesting, hearing of Seafolk from faraway lands, but Isak really only has one question. He swims up beside Eskild.

“Eskild,” he says, and Isak knows the answer the moment the nixie meets his eyes - Isak sees pity.

“I’m sorry, _Gullklump_ ,” Eskild says. “I’m sure there are mermaids out there, somewhere. Just because the humpbacks haven’t seen them, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”

Eskild reaches up to tuck Isak’s curls behind one ear. Isak just shrugs.

“I know,” he says. “Thanks… for always asking.”

He feels Eskild’s sad eyes on him as he swims off. He gets about fifty meters away before someone joins him. He knows it’s Jonas without having to look.

“I’m fine,” Isak says, answering the question Jonas didn’t have to ask.

“Are you sure?” Jonas asks.

The odd thing is that, more than he’s ever been before, Isak does feel okay. In past years, the news - the same news, ever since he’s come here - has left him feeling empty, sad and alone.

But Isak isn’t alone. He has Eskild and Noora’s shells hanging around his neck and he’s got Jonas beside him. _And maybe he’s got Even_ , a tiny, rebellious voice in his head whispers - but the point is, since Isak washed up in Galalogfjord, he has never been alone. He doesn’t know why he never knew that. Isak smiles and looks over his shoulder at the selkie.

“Yeah,” Isak says. “I am.”

Even in his seal form, Isak can see the calculation in Jonas’ eyes.

“Alright... If you say so. I got some new books for you,” Jonas says, abruptly changing topics. “They’re in a plastic bag under wharf where the _Morningcall_ docks.”

Selkies aren’t particularly adept at channelling the magic the nixies teach, so Jonas usually leaves the waterproofing to Isak, hiding the books under docks next to some notable ship or another.

“I don’t know if they’re still okay. I put them there a few days ago, though I don’t think the weather has been bad enough to mess them up yet. I was going to to tell you about it sooner, but I haven’t seen you,” Jonas says, and Isak hears the question buried in Jonas’ subtlety.

It drains any residual giddiness from Isak and the water suddenly feels colder around him. Isak’s ears burn with shame before the lies even leave his lips. What would Jonas say if Isak told him the truth? How clearly would he make Isak see how stupid he’s being?

It’s selfish. The lies are purely selfish. He knows Jonas cares too much. He knows, that even though Jonas has barely accepted his role as leader of the selkie pack in his own mind, Isak is part of that pack. If Isak tells Jonas the truth, the selkie won’t be mad. He won’t abandon or condemn Isak. Instead, he’ll get the boys together and they’ll make Isak see reason, which is worse than anything else they could do.

Because right now Isak doesn’t want to see reason. Right now, Isak doesn’t want to see anything but Even.

 

“ _Lille havfue_ , I have something for you!”

Eskild plops down beside Isak. The mermaid has one of the new books Jonas brought him open in his lap. It’s been three days since the weed and the whales, and Isak has been oscillating between joy and guilt ever since. He thinks his base mood would be guilty, except it’s really hard to feel anything but euphoria when he’s got Even’s mouth on his.

They’ve kissed… a lot. Hello kisses that taste like salt water. Deep kisses that make Isak’s body feel hot and sensitive all over. They’ve shared eskimo kisses, laying side by side on the dock with clouds rolling overhead. Every touch, every look, and every word feels like it was crafted by a higher power to draw Isak in further.

“What is it?” Isak asks.

“Tah- _dah!”_ Eskild pulls his hands out from behind his back to reveal a pair of thick bracelets, one resting in either palm. “Kelp bangles! So you have enough to turn into a full set of human clothes!”

Isak picks one up. They’re about two fingers wide and made of thin, dark strands of kelp braided together into flat bands. White disks are woven into the seaweed. Eskild wears similar ones around his neck, stark against his green skin.

“Those are made from orca teeth. We believe they protect you, and keep those who care about you close,” Eskild explains and Isak looks closer, noticing the symbolic carvings in the faces. Eskild points to one. “Noora, Linn, and I, and the other for your selkies.”

Isak feels them between his fingers, rubs his thumbs over the whale teeth. His lips are parted and words are all stuck up in his throat. Eskild waits eagerly for a reaction.

“ _Gull?”_

Isak closes his hands around the bangles, holds them tightly. He looks up at Eskild. Isak thinks it’s a combination of things that makes him say what he does next. It’s the truth burning on his tongue in combination with the guilt of lying by omission to Jonas. It’s the fact that he knows Eskild cares for him and yet won’t interfere.

“I kissed a human.”

Eskild’s pointed ears prick forward and his eyebrows raise. He’s surprised, but not as surprised as Isak expected him to be.

“Wow, _Gull,_ I’m proud of you!” Eskild says. “Were they good? Girl or boy? Honestly, I’m impressed. You move fast!”

Isak could roll with it, but Eskild’s eyes are hungry for details and the point of this was the truth anyway.

“ _Nei,_ it wasn’t that fast, _”_ Isak says, looking down at his fists and the bracelets. “I knew who he was before I even asked you to help me transform.”

“ _Ohhh_ , so you had someone in mind when you…” There must be something he sees on Isak’s face that immediately tells Eskild that Isak hadn’t just spotted his human from afar. Something in the slackness of Isak’s face and the way he won’t meet Eskild’s eyes makes it click. “Oh… _lille havfrue…”_

Isak mentally shakes himself.

“I didn’t mean for it to happen. He’s new in Galalog and I saw him drawing on his dock one day. He saw me and I…”

Isak doesn’t know how to explain what happened next.

“What’s his name?”

“ _Even_ ,” Isak says, and it’s the first time he’s ever said it aloud to another person.

In spite of the moment, Isak can’t help but notice how right it feels.

“How much does he know?” Eskild asks. “Does anyone else know?”

Isak shakes his head, curls catching in the water.

“Not much and no one else. He came to Galalog alone and he lives by himself in a cabin outside of town. Plus, I didn’t even talk to him until recently - and he won’t tell anyone. He even said he wouldn’t ask any questions if I didn’t want to answer them,” Isak says, feeling desperate to defend Even, if not his own actions. “He’s not dangerous.”

Eskild has that look of affection and pity on his face again and it always makes Isak feel so young.

“ _Gull_ … there’s more than one way for a man to be dangerous to Seafolk,” Eskild says and runs gentle fingers through Isak’s fringe.

At first, Eskild’s brand of free and tactile affection made Isak uncomfortable. Years of exposure has warmed Isak to his habits and at this point he actually feels comforted by the gestures.

“What do you mean?” Isak asks.

“It’s just…  humans aren’t bound to the shoreline, and there are many places they go that we can’t follow. They’re like flames, wild, beautiful, unpredictable… and often don’t mix well with the sea.”

Isak immediately remember’s Noora’s story.

“Even’s not…”

 _Even’s not like that,_ is what Isak wants to say, but it sounds pathetic before it even leaves his lips.

“Maybe he’s not,” Eskild concedes, though it sounds fairly hollow.

The lights over head sway just a tiny bit with the current. Isak puts on one bengal, and then the other. He runs his fingers over the whale bone again, feeling the ridges of the carvings.

“He calls me Isak.”

Eskild’s lips twitch at the corners.

“You like the name he gave you?” Isak nods. “It is a good name... Isak…”

Isak can’t fight off a little smile, too. Eskild pets his head again, running fingers through Isak’s hair.

“You’re pretty gone for him, aren’t you, _Gullklump?”_ Eskild says, his tone finally lightening. Isak rolls his eyes. “You _are_. He must be a very special man! Have you - ”

Eskild makes a gesture with his hands and Isak’s brow furrows until he gets it.

“ _Nei!_ Eskild, stop,” Isak says, throwing his forearm over his eyes to protect himself from the imagery.

“Hey, don’t knock human sex until you’ve tried it. Why do you think the only common factor between the waterfolk in human stories is fucking? In spite of collective better judgement, we keep going back for more…”

“ _What?!”_

Eskild gives him a reproachful look. Isak’s face is burning and he hates everything about this conversation.

“Don’t pretend to be all innocent, _lille havfrue_ ,” Eskild says, poking him in the nose and making the mermaid go momentarily crosseyed. “ _Isak_ didn’t ask me to teach him how to turn into a human so he could go on a stroll through Galalog.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and thoughts are super super appreciated so I hope to hear from you! 
> 
> Also, if you liked it, I'd really appreciate a reblog of the tumblr post, [HERE](https://moonlitbird.tumblr.com/post/155540677948/it-comes-in-waves-rating-mature-total-words)!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the help from [Felicia](https://hamiltrashton.tumblr.com) for her help, especially with the Norwegian. Also thank you as usual to [Kath](https://tummylinson.tumblr.com).
> 
>  **Relevant Translations:**  
>  \- _Mora mi er havet._ \- My mom is the sea.

They’re watching a film on Even’s laptop on the dock when Even throws Isak for a brand new loop. Isak has been deeply absorbed in the movie and it’s only the third one he’s ever seen. Plus, Even has assured him that  _ 10 Things I Hate About You _ is a classic, so he doesn’t blame himself for not noticing Even’s careful side-eyes or the way his attention has wandered.  

Up until this point, Even seems to have developed a habit of asking Isak questions about everything except the most important things. It’s nothing real like,  _ where do you live? Are there others like you? What kind of magic do you have?  _ Even doesn’t ask anything Isak expects him to… though he gets most of those answers anyway. They slip out with the silly answers, with Isak’s inane comments.  _ I live with nixies. My best friends are a pack of selkies.  _ It all comes from the dumbest questions. Ridiculous questions like: 

“So… you don’t have a dick, right?”

_ “What?!” _

Isak’s face is beet red and Even just looks at him as the credits role on screen, chin in his palm. The whole situation draws sudden giggles from Isak’s throat. 

“You don’t have to answer,” Even reminds him. 

Isak shakes his head, lips parted for a second before he gets a grip on himself. He presses his fingers into the spaces between the planks on the dock. Then he just rolls his eyes.

_ “Nei _ , it’s fine. I do not have a  _ dick,” _ Isak says, emphasizing the last word. “At least not in my natural form.”

That seems to immediately distract Even as his eyebrows raise towards his hairline and he tilts his head to the side. 

“Natural form? What other form do you have?” Even asks. 

Isak fiddles with the bangles around his wrists.

“Uhm, I’ve been practicing turning into a human,” Isak explains. 

“It’s new?” Even asks, fingers tracing over the lines of Isak’s tail fin - it sends a thrill up Isak’s spine, the casual intimacy that’s becoming more and more frequent between them. 

Isak shrugs as his tail twitches closer to Even. He’d be embarrassed except Even seems to notice and smile. 

“Yeah… I’ll show you, soon.”

Isak doesn’t know why he hasn’t shown Even yet. He can hold a human form for over four hours now. He can transform his shells and bracelets into a full set of human clothes and stand upright with at least the grace of a drunken sailor, tested and tried as he and the selkie boys explored the woods along the coast to the east of the Great Rocks last week. Still, he hasn’t shown Even yet. He wants to surprise him. 

“So… how do mermaids reproduce then, if they don’t have dicks?” 

Isak’s face, which had started to return to it’s usual color, goes rosy again. 

“Well, we just… come from the sea?” Isak says, all his information gained second hand. “You know, seafoam and waves…”

“So your mom is the ocean?” Even says, grinning and it makes Isak smile back.

_ “Ja… Mora mi er havet _ .”

Most of Isak’s knowledge about this actually came from Sana, acquired through several half hearted conversations they’ve had on the occasions they ended up one on one over the years. Sometimes it’s Sana who begins, shwed eyes turned towards the horizon,  _ do you want to know where mermaids come from? _ Sometimes Isak asks her questions, when he can work up the nerve. He’s always afraid she’ll share more than Isak asks, though, as she’s so fond of doing. 

Even laughs, eyes closed as he leans back onto his palms, before his brow knits together again. A wind rolls around the inlet, pulling at a few locks of hair and dropping them over Even’s forehead.

“So… if mermaids don’t reproduce sexually,” Even begins and Isak’s eyes narrow - they’re both versed in this topic from the last chapter of Even’s biology, but he doesn’t love where this is going. “Then do mermaids have sex?”

Isak opens his mouth, and then closes it again, a few aborted words trying to pass his lips as he tries to formulate an actual answer to that. 

“I - ah - ah -  _ yes, _ mermaids have  _ sex,”  _ Isak says. “Do people who don’t want babies have sex? Do gay men and women have  _ sex?” _

Even’s already laughing.

“You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry. That was a dumb question,” Even admits, eyes dropping to Isak’s lips briefly - clearly recalling all the ways that Isak has been seemingly open to the ides of sex in the past week or two. Not that they’ve  _ had _ it yet, but Isak thought he was being pretty clear with his intentions...  “Okay, so if you have sex, and don’t have… you know… how do you have sex then? Do you only have it in human form?”

Isak takes some steadying breaths, flush embarrassingly low on his chest now, extending far past the shells around his neck. However, maybe it’s the genuine interest in Even’s eyes, but Isak doesn’t get as flustered this time.

“Well… it’s just more… general I guess?” Isak says, his knowledge on the subject supplemented by an amalgam of similar conversations with the selkies. “Like it’s not focused on mostly one spot. A little more like… how a girl does.” Isak’s face burns as he remembers being cornered by Eva and Vilde. “And it’s not for reproduction, so for mermaids sex is just… about getting closer.”

That last part was another uncomfortable bit of information imparted from Sana - and something in which Isak doesn't have a lot of first hand experience. Beyond making out with a few selkies, Isak has mostly kept to himself since arriving in Galalog, especially since, until recently, he hasn’t had a lot of interest in interacting with humans. 

“It’s about being close,” Isak says, and Even’s eyelids have dropped to half mast. 

He leans in and Isak’s eyes are glued to where the human’s fingers are still tracing patterns over his tail and still Even’s face gets closer. Isak’s heart thuds against his ribcage, and his ears are so hot that a shiver rolls down his back when Even’s chilly fingers brush past to card through his hair. 

When Isak’s brain comes back online, he and Even are lying side by side. Isak’s head is resting on Even’s arm, and he’s got fingers curled into the neck of the boy’s sweater. They’re glowing under a sinking sun. Even’s fingers keep coming up to trace Isak’s cheekbone and tuck curls behind his ear, lips dropping to the mermaid’s forehead in between mumbled thoughts. And Isak’s heart is beating hard and slow. 

“Hey… Isak?”

Isak doesn’t look up, but watches the way the words move on Even’s throat.

“Yeah?”

“Can you stay… a little longer? At least until the sun sets?”

He traces his thumb over Even’s adam’s apple. 

“Okay.”

The sun is falling rapidly towards the cliffs that hold Galalogfjord, splashing red and orange over the wispy clouds overhead. 

“What about forever?” Even asks. 

Isak tips his head further into Even, and lets his eyes close, just for a minute, as his lips twitch upwards.

“Okay.”

 

o o o

 

Even’s cabin is drafty. It gets cold at night and the windows are old. The floors are water damaged and most of the doors stick, but Even has drawings and posters and notes and poems taped up on every wall. He picked out the big green arm chair in the main room and the piles of DVDs and books in every room are all his own. Right now, Even is renting the place, but he thinks he wants to buy the little cabin and the rundown dock once he graduates and makes a little money. Even can breathe here, more easily than he can ever remember in Oslo. 

One Saturday morning finds Even sitting at his little kitchen table. It has a convenient view of the dock and the shore, a good place to look out for visitors. Currently, Even is trying to put words to an idea that’s been bouncing around in his head for the past three days. Back in Oslo, Even was pretty sure all he wanted to do was direct films, but since coming to Galalog, his focus seems to have shifted slightly. He thinks it’s simply  _ stories  _ that are at the heart of everything - whatever hundreds of thousands of ways there are to tell them. Isak never saw a film before he met Even, but Even’s watched him pour over a book about  _ Achilles _ , and he can see the importance of  _ everything  _ in the little furrow between Isak’s eyebrows, and he thinks that might be it. It might be as simple as that - simple as stories.

And every story is, at it’s very core, about one thing: Love.

_ Alt er Love -  _ it’s written in the margins of his notebook, over and over. It’s painted onto the bottom of his guitar, crossed out on the bottom of his coursework, frequency increasing with each passing day. It’s growing. 

Even’s thoughts are interrupted by a knock on his door. His eyebrows knit as he looks up. He hasn't really made any close friends at his new school. He’s been embracing his semi-solitude. He doesn't think anyone even knows where he lives. 

The chair scrapes across the floor as Even stands and moves towards his little foyer. He doesn’t have a window by the door, so he can only open it and hope he’s not greeted by a murderer. 

The hinges creak as Even pulls the door open, and then his hand freezes on the knob. 

“ _ Hei _ , my name is Isak. I’m new in Galalog.”

There’s a boy on the stoop. He’s wearing a grey sweatshirt with the hood up and his hair is escaping around the edges in little golden ringlets. His smile is charmingly spacey and there are trendy trainers on his feet, just like the ones that Even owns. 

“It’s nice to meet you,” he says.

The boy’s smile is beautiful and his nose is pink with the chill of the autumn air. Even knows his eyes are wide, that his mouth is opening and closing just a little bit. Even doesn’t know what to say, knows the poor boy is waiting, but Even can’t process this. 

Suddenly the smile shifts, going from pleasant to gleeful.

“Oh my god,  _ your face!” _

Even blinks as it dawns on him. 

“You bastard!” he laughs and steps forward towards Isak to get a closer look. 

He tilts Isak’s face upwards, pushes his hood back, and knocks their knees together as he chuckles, inspecting his human shaped mermaid. 

“I totally had you fooled!” Isak crows happily.

Even is still too busy looking at him to formulate a response. He really does look like he could be one of Even’s classmates. He’d say that Isak could blend in with the crowd, but if Even saw him across the canteen he thinks he’d still be drawn in like a moth to a flame. 

“Do you want to come inside?” Even finally asks.

“Yeah,” Isak replies.

For the next hour, Even follows Isak around his own house. 

“You drew all these?”

“Yeah most of them.”

“I like them.”

Isak moves slowly, eyes narrowing, smiles touching his lips, as he explores. Even’s happy to watch, just using the time to get used to seeing Isak on legs, Isak in Even’s space. He likes it more than he can put into words. 

“What’s this?”

“A kettle. It makes hot water.”

“The nixies can do that.”

“But the way they do is cheating.”

Isak scoffs. A breeze sneaks in through the cracked window, and it’s never smelled so much like the sea before. 

“And this big thing?”

“It’s the oven.”

“Oh I’ve read about ovens.”

“You’ve read about ovens?”

“I mean, I’ve read things that mention ovens.”

“You know what else ovens are?”

“What?”

“The toastie machine.”

The next forty minutes are spent letting Isak try his own hand at making toasties. The cardamom flavored monstrosities are maybe the worst thing that Even has ever tasted, but it results in enough laughter that Even can’t help but enjoy every bite. 

After their snack they watch a movie, though their attention on it doesn’t last very long.

It’s just too heady - the temptation of Isak’s body beneath his own, all their limbs tangling up in a brand new way, all the same sounds coming from his lips. Even feels like he’s floating into the sky when Isak whispers his name, so sensitive to the lips on his neck. 

“We’re missing the movie,” Isak mumbles, fingers digging into the grooves below Even’s shoulder blades, sliding down his spine.

“You’re being a human today, right?” Even says into the skin of Isak’s throat, the happy curve of his lips pressed so close that he can feel Isak’s heart beat against them. It’s brilliant, so  _ brilliant _ . “This is what humans do during movies.”

Even neglects to mentions that he has never, not once in his entire life, prioritized making out over watching a film. 

 

After the movie, Isak and Even sit in the too small kitchen window and share a joint. The sun is almost fully set and their legs are tangled up between them. Isak knows that Jonas and the others will wonder why he hasn’t been by the Rocks in days. He knows that Noora will be asking Eskild where he is and that Eskild will be lying badly. 

“God… you’re beautiful.”

Isak’s face burns and he hides in a cloud of smoke for just a minute. He wants to tell Even that he’s beautiful, too. He licks his lips and summons the words one by one, though it’s difficult through his swimming head. 

He doesn’t get the chance though. One second his knees are knocking against Even’s and the boy is running a thumb up and down his ankle bone, and then the next second he doesn’t have knees or feet at all. The sudden transformation throws him off balance, topples him to the kitchen floor.

_ “Isak!” _

Isak lays flat on his back, tail waving above the windowsill. It’s probably the weed, but Isak just tips his head back and begins to laugh, shells bouncing on his chest. He only laughs harder as Even scrambles down beside him. 

“Are you okay?” Even asks, torn between concern and his apparent gut reaction to smile when Isak is laughing - it makes his lips twitch in a way that only makes Isak laugh harder. 

“Yeah, baby, I’m fine,” Isak drawls. 

“Did you just call me baby?”

Isak heard it used in the movies they watched, has read it in a couple books. He thinks it’s silly, but he likes it anyway.

“Baby, baby, baby,” he confirms, and shifts just enough to wiggle his head into Even’s lap. 

“My god. You’re so stoned,” Even chuckles. 

“Your fault,” Isak says.

They kept passing the joint back and forth and Isak had been too distracted by the boy in front of him to remember to stop. 

“My fault,” Even agrees. “But really, what happened? Are you alright?”

Isak nods. His eyes are closed but he’s loving the feeling of Even’s fingers combing through his fringe. 

“Yeah… just lost track of time. I’ve never been in a human form that long before,” Isak explains. 

The night air rolling in from outside is chilling the whole house. For whatever reason, Isak gets cold when he’s been out of the water a while. It’s odd, considering he’s never cold in the fjord, even in deep winter. He shivers just a little but doesn’t want to move. 

“I make you lose track of time?” Even says and Isak opens his eyes.

Of course that’s his take away. Even raises and drops his brow flirtily and Isak smiles.

“Yeah,” he breathes, reaching up to lay a hand on Even’s cheek - Even presses into the touch and it makes Isak’s breath catch at the bottom of his lungs. 

_ I think I really could, _ Isak muses.  _  I think I really could… I could stay here forever. _

But he can’t, and that’s when Isak makes a decision. 

“Even… I’m going to tell Jonas about you,” Isak whispers. 

“Your selkie friend?” Even confirms. “Will it be okay?”

Isak nods and knits one of his hands with Even’s. 

“I’ll make him understand, the others, too…”

Even leans further over him, blocking out the kitchen light above them so his face is Isak’s sky. Their hands are twined over Isak’s ribs as he kisses the tip of the mermaid’s nose.

“Okay, then.” 

 

o o o

 

Even’s waiting on the dock when Isak swims into the fjord. Three sets of stone black eyes level out over the water behind him. The sky above is silver and the air is chilly but unusually still. Isak can’t tell if it’s a sign that there’s nothing to worry about or if it feels more tense than anything, like the fjord is holding her breath. 

 

“I knew you were hiding something. I mean we were worried you might be… I don’t even know,” Jonas said, as they sat side by side on a great bluff that looked out on the mouth of the fjord and onwards to the ocean beyond. Isak had fallen over at least four times trying to get up the hill, but Jonas went slow for him. “It never occurred to me that you’d…”

“I’m sorry,” Isak said, shoulders hunched against the sea breeze, unsure which of many things he was apologizing for - he was just sorry. 

Jonas sighed heavily, curls catching in the wind, blowing this way and that, brow heavier than usual on his face.

“I suppose what’s done is done,” he said and then his words turned just a little wry, and Isak saw a spark of hope. “You really like him then?”

“Yes,” Isak whispered to his knees. He watched as a pod of striped dolphins swam down the coast, launching themselves from the waves as they went, joy in their every move. Isak’s next confession was even quieter. “I’ve never felt anything like this before.”

He knew Jonas was watching him out of the corner of his eye. The clouds overhead were thick, rolled too fast through the sky. 

“Will he stay?” Jonas finally asked.

Isak’s throat had felt so dry. It was everything he hadn’t wanted to think about, everything he knew he’d have to once Jonas knew. 

“Does it matter?” he tired.

“Of course,” Jonas said. 

Isak wanted to say yes. He wanted to say that Even was different than Noora’s William, that Even would stay forever - but he was done lying and he wasn’t fool enough to think that what washes ashore can’t just as easily be reclaimed by the sea. 

“I don’t know.”

Jonas didn’t reply for a long time. Isak tried to hear the dolphins singing in the distance but they were too far away now. He counted the mountain peaks in the distance and tried to recall the human names for them. 

Jonas scratched his chin, eyes raking over the landscape. He rubbed the back of his neck and Isak’s felt like his heart was being squeezed by an octopus. 

“Well…” Jonas finally said. “I suppose we’ll have to meet him, then.”

 

Isak has been a mess since those words came out of Jonas’ mouth, worried about what the selkies will think, about what they’ll do. Even has been remarkably good natured about the whole thing, but two worlds are colliding for Isak and he’s never been so nervous. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Even, or the selkies, but this thing between him and Even is still so young and fragile - and fraught with a thousand inherent disasters - that Isak can’t help but feel like this has the potential to change everything. 

The selkies pause a ways back from the dock and Isak swims forward. As soon as he’s out of the water, he transforms into his human form and Even helps him to his feet. 

“ _ Halla _ ,” Even says, and his voice is soft but it carries through the silence - Isak would give anything for a bit of wind to blow away the tension in his bones - but the air is dead. 

“ _ Halla _ ,” Isak replies, and resists the urge to kiss Even right there in front of the selkies. 

In spite of himself, Isak’s racing heart is already slowing. Even’s smile is warm and he doesn’t look scared. If Even isn’t scared, maybe Isak doesn’t have to be either.

“Are they going to come up?” Even asks, looking over Isak’s shoulder at the three sets of black eyes still poking out of the water. 

“Um, they’ll be up in a minute. They have to hide their skins, and they won’t do it in front of you,” Isak explains.

Even nods, eyes glittering with humor.

“Right! Then I could steal them and make them all my seal wives! I googled it,” Even says, loud enough for them to hear. “They don’t have to worry. I would make a great husband. I’m a very generous and gentle lover. Tell them, Isak.”

Isak feels his ears go pink as a shocked giggle leaves his lips. Magnus and Mahdi are laughing too, though Isak doubts Even can tell. Jonas shoots them warning looks. Isak rolls his eyes as he chuckles and tries to shepherd Even towards the cabin.

“Come on. They’ll join us in a minute,” Isak says. 

“Two of them already think I’m funny,” Even whispers as they walk. “One more to go!”

Isak supposes he was wrong, and wonders if it means anything that Even can recognize a seal’s laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so much for reading! Let me know your thoughts, I'd super appreciate it! All of your comments have been making my whole life, seriously. Thank you all so much!
> 
> Also, if you like the fic I'd be super thankful for a reblog of [THIS](https://moonlitbird.tumblr.com/post/155838994423/it-comes-in-waves-rating-mature-total-words) post!
> 
> New chapter coming soon.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to [Felicia](https://hamiltrashton.tumblr.com) for her continued betareads. Thanks to both her and [Kath](https://tummylinson.tumblr.com) for their constant help and readthroughs. You all are my favorite. 
> 
> Sorry for the delay. This story is still everything to me, I am just completely slammed at work and it's been leaving me pretty burnt out. 
> 
> Translations for this chapter:  
> \- _Nei... mora mi er havet._ \- No... my mom is the ocean.  
>  \- _Smal_ \- Skinny  
>  \- _Gull_ \- Gold

Even can almost see the waves crashing around under Isak’s skin as they walk up the path towards the cabin. Once they’re in the foyer, Even hooks a hand around Isak’s elbow to turn him around. One kiss falls to his lips, another to Isak’s brow.

“Don’t worry. I’m going to charm the pants off your selkies. I have both beer _and_ snacks,” Even says. “You said that would work.”

“For Mahdi and Magnus,” Isak qualifies, and Even just shrugs.

He tilts Isak’s face upwards.

“You said it’s not like they’re going to stop you seeing me. They aren’t your parents, right?”

That makes Isak smile, his eyes dropping. He rolls his eyes a little, and Even knows he gets the joke.

“ _Nei… mora mi er havet.”_

It makes Even’s eyes crinkle and a chuckle bubble in his chest. He leads them into the kitchen and pulls four different bags of chips out of the cupboard. Isak takes a seat close to the window and turns back into his mermaid form. In the past week, Isak has come up to Even’s cabin a number of times. Each visit he seems to grow more and more comfortable in Even’s space, to the human’s overwhelming delight.

Even pulls his hoodie over his head and hands it to Isak. The mermaid confessed on his second visit that he gets cold when he leaves the fjord.

“Thanks,” Isak says as he pulls the garment to his chest.

Even twists a few blonde curls around his fingers, but looks up when he hears a knock on the door. He leaves Isak in the kitchen to answer it. The cold air that hits him raises goosebumps on Even’s exposed arms.

The boy before Even has a thick halo of curly brown hair, and a heavy black brow that sits over a pair of intense eyes.

“Come in,” Even says, stepping back. “Jonas?”

The boy nods in affirmation as he steps over the threshold, follwed closely by a boy with dark skin and close cropped hair. Even idly wonders if seafolk ever get haircuts. He makes a mental note to ask Isak later.

“Mahdi,” the boy says as he follows Jonas into the entryway, and Even nods his acknowledgement.

It’s not the warmest greeting he’s ever experienced, but Even’s nothing if not optimistic - you know, most of the time.

 _“Hurry up, Magnus!”_ Jonas calls over his shoulder.

 _“Coming!”_ a voice shouts back, and Even sees a third boy jogging up the path, shaking his hair out as he comes.

“Isak is in the kitchen, right down the hall,” Even tells Jonas and Mahdi.

They nod and are almost out of sight by the time Magnus reaches the front door.

“ _Halla_. I’m Even.”

Instead of responding immediately, Magnus cranes his neck to look Even’s shoulder, down the now empty hallway. Apparently finding what he was looking for, a smile breaks over his face and as he looks back at Even. He grabs one of Even’s hands and shakes it vigorously with both of his own. The door swings shut behind them as Even is pleasantly overwhelmed by a blonde haired selkie.

 _“Hei! I’m Magnus,_ ” he whisper shouts. “Jonas said we have to be intimidating so don’t tell him I said any of this, but it’s _so_ cool to meet you! We’ve only known about you for a few days but, like, everything makes so much sense now. _Smal_ has been totally fucking twitterpated.”

Even can’t do anything but laugh softly, glowing a bit at the warm greeting.

“Smal?”

Magnus smacks his forehead.

“Right! He says you call him Isak, and he seems to actually like it! He always complains about ours,” Magnus rolls his eyes like Even’s in on the joke. The human doesn’t bother mentioning he can sort of see Isak’s side on this one. “Though I bet he’d like anything a hottie like you gives him, _eh?”_

The nudge, wink, and emphasis are heavy handed, but Even is pretty sure he’s just made a friend, which is the most important thing at this point.

 _“Even?”_ Isak’s voice calls from the kitchen.

“I’ll be in in a minute,” Even calls back. “I’m just grabbing a sweater.”

Magnus gives him a thumbs up.

“Anyway, it’s great to meet you, _Even.”_

Even means to return the sentiment but instead is met with a pair of arms around his neck and a hand thumping his back, rough and sincere. Magnus backs up, and puts his finger in front of his lips. Even nods in understanding. Then Magnus makes a joking _I’m watching you_ gesture by pointing at his eyes and then at Even, before he actually moves down the hallway.

Even lets himself collect his thoughts a minute, chuckling in his foyer as a group of magical seafolk settle into his kitchen.

His life is officially awesome.

 

“It’s an oven. They use it to heat food,” Isak explains as the selkies lean over the device, making their rounds through the kitchen - though, they’ve had a decent amount of interactions with humans over the long years, their areas of expertise have huge gaps.

It makes sense considering any deep human interaction was made while they were pretending to _be_ humans. Isak supposes asking what an oven was would be a pretty obvious giveaway that something was up.

“What? What’s wrong with, y’know, fish?” Mahdi asks, which Isak thinks is pretty ironic when he’s currently stuffing his mouth with vinegar flavored potato chips.

Isak’s saved from further explanation by Even’s entrance. He’s wearing a blue zip up now, and it reminds the mermaid of his own garment. The grey fabric is so soft against his skin, and it’s saturated with the smell of Even. Isak knows because he buried his nose in the collar the second he was sure Even wasn’t looking, can still smell it when he moves, when he turns his head to smile at Even.

“Beers?”

The boys agree with mixed levels of enthusiasm.

Mahdi is just happy to have drinks that he didn’t have to sell oysters on the docks to get the money to buy. Isak can tell Magnus is already convinced of Even’s worth - though the happy-go-lucky selkie was basically sold at _So there’s a human that I like_. He hadn’t taken much convincing. Jonas, for his part, is perched on the windowsill with sharp eyes, like an erne trying to see fish below the surface of the water. He does nod his agreement and mumble out a thank you, though, when Even offers.

Even pulls four cans and a bottle out of the fridge and hands one to each of the boys. He keeps one can for himself and cracks the bottle open before sliding it into Isak’s waiting hands.

 _“Takk,”_ Isak says and takes a deep sip of the rich brew.

He noticed that Jonas has tracked the interaction with his eyes. The selkie raises a brow and Isak shrugs. Jonas just huffs a small laugh and rolls his eyes dramatically.

 _“You’re such a snob,”_ Jonas says, in the selkie tongue, but then he takes a sip of his beer and some of the tension in the room drains away – it feels like Even has passed a kind of test, and Isak’s shoulders relax.

“Selkie language?” Even asks Mahdi as he leans against the counter.

“Yeah. Most seafolk can learn to understand each other pretty easily, but we all have our own sort of particular ways of talking,” Mahdi explains. “Selkie obviously being the best way.”

He and Magnus clink their cans together.

“Really?” Even asks.

“ _Ja!”_ Magnus says enthusiastically. “I mean nixies and sirens are alright - ”

“Yeah, sirens are _alright,”_ Madhi cuts in clinking his can against Magnus’ again, and Isak rolls his eyes - the boys were _obsessed_ with sirens.

“But - _oh my god_ \- I once heard a caecalia sing? It was like a seagull trying to sing a whalesong!”

“ _Ay, ay -_ and remember that kelpie that washed down into the fjord? Sounded like porpoises mating when he talked!” Mahdi continued.

Even’s laughing now, and Isak doesn’t think he’s won yet - he still feels the weight Jonas’ forming judgements on his back - but he can’t stop the smile from creeping onto his face. His bottle is resting against the curve of his lips when Even catches his eye, sending him a small, reassuring grin that’s mostly in his eyes.

“Oh!”

“And - ”

“ _The oceanids!”_ Magnus and Mahdi crow together and then make a series of ridiculous bubbling noises.

Isak sighs and lets his chin rest in his palm. They could be here a while.

When Jonas is finally won over, it’s not so much anything that Even exactly _does_ in relation to Isak.

They eventually make their way out of the kitchen, the selkies interested in exploring now that all their kitchen questions have been answered. It’s just like Isak’s first visit. They’ve been to bars and house parties before, unlike Isak, but now all their curiosities can be answered for.

“It’s just all so hard to keep up with!” Magnus says, defending himself for not knowing what a laptop is. “Remember when theatres happened? Feels like just yesterday. Oh and _rock and roll_ \- I swear Jonas reached fucking enlightenment.”

Isak looks to see if Even will say something about the fact that the selkies have been around that long. He’s implied to Even he’s much older than his looks would imply, but it’s hard to explain - time doesn’t exactly pass the same way for seafolk as it does for humans. Isak doesn’t _feel_ old - in fact, Even usually makes him feel ridiculously young.

Even doesn’t mention it, anyway. Instead his eyes go to Jonas, who’s inspecting one of the two guitars hung up on the wall of Even’s little living room.

“You play?” Even asks.

Jonas glances over his shoulder, and Isak can see his hesitance. He looks back at the guitar.

“Not guitar. I play a few seafolk instruments. Never had a dry enough place to keep a guitar or any good way to learn,” Jonas says, lightly thumbing the strings.

Even’s leaning against the wall drinking his beer.

“I could show you if you wanted,” Even says. “Whenever.”

Jonas levels his gaze at Even, and the way they communicate is silent. It’s like two foxes sizing each other up across a beach. Finally, Jonas hums and Even takes another sip of his beer. Isak thinks it’s a good sign.

“Cool,” Jonas says, and then moves onto the stack of CDs on the floor. “You have any Bob Dylan?”

A long time ago, Jonas stumbled upon a portable CD player and built up a small collection of disks. Isak tried to waterproof all of them, but something about the complexity of the device kept the magic from working right. The machine only lasted a few moons, but Isak always felt bad – Jonas had loved the thing. He’d been good natured about its loss, calmly going back to his habit of posting up in the corner of the local bar a few nights a week, right next to the speakers. Isak hadn’t really understood, as entrenched in the fjord as he’d always been. Since he was drawn in by Even’s songs and Even’s music, that’s changed. He can’t believe he let himself be bound by the shore for so long, not when there was so much waiting beyond the beach.

“No. I don’t have any Bob Dylan on CD, but I can pull some up on Spotify,” Even says, and Jonas tilts his head in confusion. Even waves him over and then looks to over his shoulder to Isak, who has been watching closely from the couch. “Isak, will you turn on the Bluetooth?”

Isak is happy to oblige, picking up the little black box from the windowsill. He shoots Jonas a wink that says _hah, I know some human stuff that you don’t_ as he turns the device on. Even’s fished his phone out of his pocket and is showing the screen to Jonas. Magnus and Mahdi have now keyed into the conversation and begun to watch like hawks.

“It’s a subscription music app – so like I pay a bit of money every month and can look up whatever music I want,” Even explains as Jonas looks at the screen. Even types something in and then soft strumming begins to pour out of the speakers. “I have a tablet that has it, too. You’re welcome to use it whenever.”

Even offers it to Jonas who begins to poke around. His furrowed brow slowly untangles and a real smile breaks out on his face. He pokes the screen and the song changes.

“Fuck! I loved this one,” Jonas says, still poking around on screen.

Isak can see victory in Even’s eyes when he glances over at the mermaid. Magnus and Mahdi’s eyes are more openly gleeful where they’re sitting side by side on the couch.

 _“Oj, oj, Smal,”_ Magnus begins, speaking in the selkie tongue. _“Jonas, is going to steal your human. You better hide his skin.”_

Isak laughs aloud at the old selkie adage. Jonas’ smile drops as he narrows his eyes at his pack.

 _“To be honest I think it’s more urgent than that. Jonas is gonna suck his dick tonight,”_ Mahdi continues.

 _“Stop talking shit,”_ Jonas barks, but his bite is gone – the walls don’t go up that easily once they’re down, and Isak knows he’s in the clear.

Even raises an eyebrow in question, but Isak just shakes his head and smiles reassuringly. He reaches out for Even, tail flipping back and forth happily. Even’s more than glad to fulfil the wordless request and comes to him.

In spite of the teasing, Jonas doesn’t give Even his phone back and takes full control of the music. He plays song after song, grudgingly taking the occasional request, as they work through the frankly ridiculous amount of beer that Even has stocked the cabin with. It goes on like that, Magus asking Even stupid questions, Isak’s tail wrapped over his lap, until the sun starts to rise.

They amble out of the cabin and onto the shore at daybreak, watery light dripping down the hillsides, slowly bleeding color back into the land.

“Don’t drown!” Even calls from the dock, eyes hooded, as the selkies and Isak drift sleepily out into the fjord.

When Isak returns to the nixie caves, the first thing he sees is Noora holding his shell garland. Isak forgot it when left the previous day, so nervous about the selkies meeting Even that he’d left in a tumbling rush.

Now, Noora sits on a kelp bed with a semi-alert Linn at her side. Any more observation is cut off by a flurry of bubbles as Eskild descends upon the mermaid.

“ _I’m sorry!_ They _made_ me tell them. Linn woke up and wondered where you were, and you know Noora’s been suspicious for _weeks_ ,” Eskild says it all in a rush.

It’s not the whole story, but Isak fills in the gaps quickly. Noora’s hair floats around her head in a loose halo and her eyes are unreadable.

“Really, _Gull_ , I didn’t mean—”

“It’s okay,” Isak says, putting an end to Eskild’s agitated apology quickly.

Eskild looks at Isak in confusion, this obviously not the reaction he was expecting—but Isak is riding on the fragile hope that he’s taken from the success of Even’s meeting with the selkies. The relief is addicting, and Isak doesn’t want to hide anything anymore.

“Eskild, it’s okay. Just… can I speak with Noora?”

“Of course,” he says after a brief calculation.

He quickly swims towards one of the deeper caves, waving Linn to join him. She doesn’t rush, just looks consideringly at Isak as she rouses herself. Her eyes bore into him as she floats by and Isak has no idea what she’s thinking – never has.

Noora is at least slightly easier to read, though the understanding and closeness between them has always been slow coming. Isak thinks, no matter her love and kindness, the mermaid has always been scared of letting Noora close. They’ve both been broken for so long, and Isak supposes seeing it in her would have forced him to see it in himself, too.

He’d been so good at that—the not seeing.

Noora pats the spot next to her, delicate hands soft against the patterned blanket that covers the kelp bed. Isak settles beside her. She loops the garland so she can lay it like a circlet on his brow.

“I’m sorry I lied,” Isak begins.

The corner of Noora’s mouth quirks, eyes still a mystery.

“I’m sorry Eskild or I made you feel like you had to,” she murmurs.

“You’re not… I mean it’s not your—you don’t think I should stop seeing Even?” Isak asks, caught off guard when her immediate response isn’t what he expected.

Noora leans against the wall of the cave, knees pulled up in front of her.

“I can’t say. I don’t know your Even,” Noora says honestly.

“But—he’s a human, and you…” Isak isn’t sure how to say it.

Noora shrugs.

“In my experience… Well, I suppose I’m just not sure that a human can love the way seafolk can—at least in this day and age. But I do know that nobody, human nor seafolk, is meant to be alone. I may not be ready to find a mate again, but I _do_ love, _Gull_ . I love Eskild and Linn. I love Eva, and Vilde, Chris, and Sana, too. I also have love for you, _Gull_ —though I’m not sure you’ve noticed it until recently. I think maybe you forgot how, with everything else.”

Isak swallows. He feels guilt and a deeper sadness that he can’t name. He knows he cared for them all; he’d even been _content_ before he met Even—and yet there’s a part of him that thinks Noora might be right. Maybe he was just drifting for all those years. Maybe he’s only just woken up.

“I’m sorry,” Isak says, but Noora just laughs.

When she laughs like that, Isak doesn’t know how there could have been a human who wouldn’t sail across the world for her.

“Don’t be sorry! Whatever happened to you, _Gull_ , whatever brought you to Galalogfjord, it’s not your fault. I’m just saying, whatever happens and however it ends—I don’t think it’s a bad thing if he opens your eyes to love.”

He lets the words sink in, but quickly decides that line of thinking is overwhelming. Instead, he focuses on the fact that a member of what Isak can only call his family isn’t condemning what he has with Even. Isak glances up at her, trying to gauge her sincerity. There’s no hint of falsehood, and she seems to be aware of what he’s doing. Her grin gets more playful.

“Okay…! That’s enough of all that,” Noora says, taking his hand and patting it. “Now, would you be willing to read to me while I make lunch?”

She pulls him up from the matt. Finally Isak smiles.

“What do you want me to read?”

“Hmm… _The Princess Bride!”_

Isak rolls his eyes.

But he does all the voices, without her even asking, just for the way it makes Noora smile.

o o o

“Can I look yet?”

_“Nei!”_

“What about now?”

_“Even!”_

Even got the little boat from a neighbor. He saw the old thing on his way home from school the other day, growing mold next to a boathouse. He hadn’t had any specific plans for the thing when he asked the woman who owned the house if he could have it, but the second Isak saw it, he seemed to have a plan.

In spite of his comments, Even has actually kept his head firmly in his hands since Isak told him, the mermaid taking control of the little boat. A backpack sits on his feet, full of sandwiches—fancy ones that Even decided were fit for a romantic picnic—and wine that he spent far too much money on. Still, even can’t wait to see what Isak looks like with stained lips.

There’s the sound of a hull scraping against pebbles and then the boat stops. He feels Isak climb into the boat beside him, human knees knocking against human knees. Then there are hands on his wrists, pulling his palms away from his eyes. Even’s face goes from amused to awed—wonder wells up in his chest.

“Isak, it’s… _wow_.”

 _It_ is a tiny cove enclosed by high walls of stone. Emerald moss clings to the rocks, and daring little plants hold tight to every crevice and crack—flowers of sapphire and purple bloom and tumble over the ledges. Tiny white blossoms dot the walls like a million stars. At the mouth of the cove, a stream tumbles over the edge, cascading down into the sea. Rainbows cut through the mist—and the beach is rainbow, too.

Even steps out of the boat and immediately kneels by the first band of violet stones. The strips of color radiate out from the shore—indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, crimson at the base of the walls.

“Are they colored by magic?” Even asks as Isak kneels beside him.

Isak’s smile is soft as his fingertips brush over the pebbles.

 _“Nei…_ they’re not magic at all. They’re no different than the pebbles on any other beach. All jumbled up, they’d look no different, but if you look close,” Isak says, taking a single stone in his palm. “Each one has a unique color. When they’re next to stones of the same color, that’s when you can actually tell.”

Even can’t help but think about the shiny black stone sitting on his bedside table at home. Isak takes his hand and pulls him towards a tan sheet that’s spread over what appears to be a matt of goosedown at the center of the beach. It’s enclosed by a few boulders and one massive driftwood log the color of fresh milk. Isak pulls them down onto the sheet, and whatever is under it is certainly comfortable, and with the dryness of the fabric beneath his hands, Even knows magic is at play. Upon closer inspection, Even thinks the fabric may have once been a ship’s sail.

“What is this place?” Even asks.

“Part of the nixies’ territory. Our caves are near here, under the water. Eskild, Noora, and Linn come here to sing when the moon is full,” Isak explains, smiling as he leans back against the log.

It’s so odd, seeing him here like this—the contrast between the hoodie that Isak has magicked himself into and this mystical place. Even’s got Adidas on his feet and Isak looks like any teenage boy ready to go to some pre-drink with his friends and yet Even _knows_ what he is. It’s right there in his eyes and in the mumbled selkie curses as he struggles to get Even’s backpack open. Even can almost hear nixie-song echoing off the walls, unending years of it, and nothing has ever been so perfect.

“Ooh, wine!” Isak says and bobs his head excitedly as he discovers the treasure.

It’s _perfect_.

 

“I’ve never felt this way before.”

They’re laying side by side on the blanket that Even packed for their picnic. Golden light drips down onto them from the nixie-grown flowers that open when the sun goes down. They know Isak is here and they open for him, too, petals glowing with warmth and vibrancy. It should be cold, but the night’s chill doesn’t touch this magic place. There’s an empty bottle of wine wedged into a band of orange pebbles and Even’s eyes are full of joy.

“I haven’t either,” Isak whispers.

Even cards fingers through Isak’s hair and rubs their noses together softly. Isak presses forward until their foreheads are touching, his tail looped over Even’s waist. A question pops into Isak’s head, and it’s dangerous and forbidden, but it materializes on his lips anyway.

“Even…?”

“Hmm?”

“Would you sail across the sea for me?”

Even presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth, to his cheekbone, and to the bridge of his nose.

“I don’t know how to sail… but I’d learn. And I’d sail across every sea, and every ocean,” Even says, and Isak lets out a shuddering breath as Even takes his face between his palms. “And I heard there are frozen seas on one of Jupiter’s moons… so I’d figure out how to get their and sail those, too.”

“You can’t sail on ice,” Isak tells him, kissing him back.

“Well, then I’ll die romantically, frozen in your memory,” Even says.

“Don’t say that,” Isak says, trying to quiet the human with his lips.

Even’s fingers trail over his neck and raise goosebumps on his skin.

“Then what happens? How do we live forever then?” Even asks.

“I ask the sea to let me keep you,” Isak says, head spinning with what he’s beginning to realize might be love.

The kisses turn deep at that, Even locking their lips together. Isak kisses back just as fiercely.

Isak’s plans hadn’t _specifically_ meant to lead them here but he’d be lying if he said it hadn’t crossed his mind what might happen between them in this magical place. In spite of being half attached at the lips since they first kissed, Isak and Even haven’t gone much further. He’s not sure what’s held them back. Really he thinks they just haven’t been in any rush – the kisses, the whispered words, it’s all been more than enough to satisfy them as they’ve sunk closer and closer together.

The innocence, the simplicity, it has its own beauty.

“You’re like a fairy tale; you’re a dream,” Even once whispered as they made out on a bed of soft scrub grasses on one particularly nice day in early October. “One I’m having day and night.”

They’ve kissed and caressed and breathed each other in, like Isak would be required to map every mark and freckle on Even’s face with his eyes closed before they could go any further.

It’s been wonderful.

But Eskild hadn’t been _totally_ wrong when he said Isak wasn’t learning to turn into a human to go on a stroll through town.

Apparently, this is the tipping point – and Even seems to sense it, too. There’s a new intensity in the way his thumb presses into Isak’s jaw, tilting his head back. There’s a new heat in the way his lips skip down the line of Isak’s exposed neck.

Isak’s breath huffs out in little bursts and it’s all he can do to keep his head just a little longer. Even’s lips are soft and wet, leaving trails and momentary chills wherever they go. Isak holds it together until Even seals his lips into the hollow under Isak’s ear.

His tail twists tightly around one of Even’s legs, and with one gasp, they go past the point of no return.

 _“Even,”_ Isak says, trying to come to the surface to get one deep breath before they dive. “Even, wait, I want…”

The human pulls back immediately. Even’s eyes meet Isak’s and something in his chest quiets right away. He swallows, fingers coming up to trace the line of Even’s cheekbone, needing to feel him to make sure he’s actually there – that they’re actually here, together.

“I’ve been wanting –” the words clam up in Isak’s throat, bringing a deeper blush to his cheeks.

He’s not going to be able to say it. Showing is much easier. Isak focuses and then there’re two sets of legs intertwined on a magical beach, caught up in the whispering of the ocean. The mermaid didn’t bother changing his bangles or his shells – he has no intention of needing clothes.

“Oh, _Isak,”_ Even breaths and Isak has to look away. Even’s fingers go to the shells woven into Isak’s hair, they trail down his neck, over a hip, and down the outside of Isak’s thigh. “You’re so fucking _hot_ , Isak.”

It’s both thrilling and embarrassing, Even’s attention. Isak smiles as he rolls his eyes. Even’s never shy about his flattering compliments and yet they send a flush to Isak’s face every time.

“Kiss me,” Isak replies simply.

“As you wish,” Even says, eyes sparkling.

He tugs his sweater and shirt over his head in one fell motion and then falls on Isak. Maybe it’s the knowledge of what’s coming, but everything feels different. Each kiss feels deeper, each touch burns into him. Even meets him like a storm rolling over the open ocean, like seafoam crashing onto the shore.

His hands are boiling on Isak’s neck, on his ribs. His lips are a gentle fire on Isak’s belly – and when he touches Isak in the place he’s suddenly most desperate to be touched, it’s like nothing the mermaid has ever felt before. He’s never been intimate in this way. It’s too focused, too intense, too much and never enough. Even swallows each of the sounds that are bubbling out of Isak. He catches them with his own lips, whispers words back that make Isak shiver right down to his core.

And when that’s not enough, he claws at the button on Even’s trousers – and then it’s just two boys and nothing between them. This is something that’s a little more familiar to Isak, body to body, skin to skin, and yet it’s never been _like_ _this_ before. His brain keeps shouting that single thought. Never before has Isak felt like the entire world has ceased to exist outside of these stone walls. A touch has never before sunk so fully under his skin, straight through him, right into his very heart. He feels like he could burst.

Even’s hands are gentle but sure and he takes Isak higher. His voice is soothing when something else begins to unfurl in Isak and it _is_ too much. His legs shake and he feels like he can’t get a full breath into his lungs. His knees try to close, bumping against Even’s hips, and he grips the human so tight, afraid he’ll be lost, adrift, if he lets go.

“It’s okay, Isak,” Even hushes him, encourages him. “Let go. It’s okay…”

It wells up in Isak, this single overwhelming wave of pleasure that Isak isn’t sure how he’ll weather. He wraps his arms tightly around Even’s neck, pulls him closer. His lips drag over Even’s cheek and he can’t help but squeeze his eyes closed.

When Isak does go over the edge, it’s like the universe blinks out of existence for a few seconds. In its place is just him and Even, the touch of his hand, the feel of his body, and the soft whispers of _yes, beautiful,_ and _Isak_ in his ears.

Afterwards he holds Isak close and kisses him like a balm on a burn, until Isak’s heart stops thumping quite so violently and the clouds clear from his eyes.

Isak’s not forgotten, though, that the reason he chose this form is so they’d be the same. His movements are a little shaky and unsure as he rolls them over. He nuzzles their noses together, a self soothing gesture, before he rejoins their lips. Isak imitates, attempts to fumble through a recreation of the way Even touched him. He knows it can’t be perfect, his movements too unpracticed, too shy, and too desperate to make this _right._

It feels right anyway. Isak sits up so he can feel some level of control - and yeah it feels right, even if a new flush burns down Isak’s chest at the way that Even is staring up at him, refusing to look away. His fingers dip into the skin of the mermaid’s thighs, then run upwards to see how his thumbs fit over the curve of Isak’s hipbones. In spite of Isak’s embarrassment, touching Even is almost intoxicating. His head spins and his heart thuds when Even slowly starts to lose composure just like Isak had.

“So beautiful,” Even breaths as Isak leans over him. His palm reaches up to press into Isak’s cheek, like he’s making sure Isak doesn’t look away, making sure Isak recognizes the sincerity in his words. “My beautiful.”

On a whim, Isak presses a kiss into the dip of Even’s hand, maybe hoping that he’ll hold onto it.

The sky above is clear and starlight drips down on them, mixing in with the light of the nixies’ flowers in the unnaturally warm air. The hum of the waterfall harmonizes with the rolling of the waves. They sing their mood-song beautifully, but it’s quiet enough that no whisper, no caught breath, is lost between them.

When Even’s chest begins to rise and fall quickly, he twists one hand together with Isak’s – and still Even doesn’t look away. The mermaid doesn’t think he’s ever been _seen_ like Even is seeing him now. There’re so many things swirling around in his eyes, emotions and questions and answers all there in the deep.

“Yeah,” Isak finds himself replying, unsure what he means except that he _means it_. “Yes…”

Even’s hand squeezes Isak’s and he groans as his head tips backwards. Isak feels like his own heart is racing to keep time with Even’s. The human’s eyes are reduced to deep blue slivers and Isak is entranced by the way his muscles jump and twitch, the way he moves for _Isak_. Even bites his lips and for a brief second he understands Even’s desire for an immortal memory. Part of Isak wants to freeze them here forever. He wants to keep this exact moment in a locket of seaglass and wear it over his heart forever – he wants to keep the way that Even’s gaze is overflowing with awe, with wonder, and with things Isak doesn’t dare name. He wants to keep the way that his own chest feels like it’s about to burst, the closest he’s ever felt to drowning in anything.

Even’s eyes only close at the very last second before he falls apart, and when he does, she rasps out a single, raw word.

_“Isak.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone for reading and for your patience. I'd absolutely love love love to hear what you think.
> 
> New chapter is coming soon (already have the outline ready to go, I'm so excited), and if you like this fic I'd really appreciate a reblog of [this post](https://moonlitbird.tumblr.com/post/157032182108/it-comes-in-waves-rating-mature-total-words) on tumblr.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to [felicia](https://hamiltrashton.tumblr.com) and [monstermonstre](https://monstermonstre.tumblr.com) for their betas! Thank you to Kath for always being fucking kickass. 
> 
> Translations:  
> tidevann middag - Tide Dinner  
> Unnskyld - sorry/excuse me

“Isak,” Even’s voice is soft.

Early morning light is spilling into the cove. Breakfast was leftover pastries from the night before, followed by a spliff shared between them. The smoke curled up into the sky, mixing with the fog burning off the fjord.

“Hm?” Isak replies.

His head is pillowed in Even’s stomach; Even’s head’s resting on his backpack. Isak’s got one of Even’s hands curled into both his own, feeling out the shape of each of his knuckles.

“Why do you have more than one name?”

Isak’s not surprised by the question. He’s been expecting it for a while now. He draws the pad of Even’s thumb with an index finger.

“Because, if I ever had a name, I don’t remember it,” Isak says.

“Why?” Even asks, brushing Isak’s fringe away from his forehead.

Isak takes a deep breath and then looks up at Even. He gives a little shrug.

“I’m not really sure. There was a storm, a long, long time ago. Eskild found me, unconscious near the mouth of the fjord. When I woke up, I couldn’t remember anything. I get flashes… images in dreams but…” Isak shrugs. “Eskild started calling me  _ Gull,” _ Even’s fingers trace over the constellations of golden scales on Isak’s tail. “The selkies called me  _ Smal,  _ and Sana always called me  _ Nanvelose _ . In the beginning I think they were all meant to be temporary, and that I’d remember.”

“You never did?”

_ “Nei,” _ Isak whispers.

“Could other mermaids help you?” Even asks.

Isak sighs. He’s not surprised by this question either.

“I don’t know any other mermaids. As far as I know, nobody has in a very long time,” Isak says.

“I’m sorry,” Even says quietly, and thankfully doesn’t ask any follow-up questions that will prolong this conversation.

Yet, Isak’s conversation with Noora comes to mind. He flashes a little smile at Even.

“It’s okay,” Isak says—okay in the way things you can’t change must be okay, in the way that lie becomes truth over time. “I have Jonas and the other selkies, and Noora, Eskild, and Linn.”

Before Even can reply, Isak hears a soft  _ aww _ and his head whips around.

“What is it?” Even asks, sitting up when Isak does.

Isak’s eyes are narrowed and he hears a quiet  _ oh shit _ followed by a little splash.

“I know you guys are there,” Isak says, and sure enough two heads pop out of the shallows, coming out from behind an outcrop in the cove. “Come on out.”

“Isak! What a surprise to see you here!” Eskild says, followed by a blushing Noora, who obviously has more shame over being caught.

Isak’s face is burning a little, too, overly aware that there’s no way the nixies don’t know what he and Even must have been up to by spending the night in the cove. Isak rolls his eyes, refusing to acknowledge his embarrassment. Even has gone from concerned to excited as he takes in the image of fin-frilled ears and green-tinted skin.

“Right. Just happened to come by the Rainbow Cove at dawn, Isak deadpans.

“Noora needs blue stones for her cave,” Eskild tries and Noora tucks her bluish hair behind her ear self-consciously.

All it takes is Isak raising a brow for Eskild to drop the act. He sighs heavily and turns his face to the sky, like Isak is the one being unreasonable.  

_ “Fine, Gull!  _ Your smelly selkie boys got to meet Even, we wanted to meet him too.”

Noora at least has the decency to look ashamed.

“Nixies?” Even asks, huge smile on his face.

Isak nods.

“Even, meet Noora and Eskild,” he grudgingly introduces. “Noora, Eskild… Even.”

_ “Hei,”  _ they chorus.

_ “Halla,”  _ Even replies.

 

o o o

 

Even is in love. He knows it in his bones, feels it right down to his very toes. It’s not your everyday kind of love either. It’s cosmic and transcendent and beautiful. It’s celestial and Even can see it in Isak’s eyes too. He can spot it in all the smiles drawn from the mermaid, pulled from him by all the new poems and stories on his walls. Isak has a thousand different laughs with a thousand meanings and Even wants to catalogue every single one – and he’s started a journal to do just that. Maybe he’ll show it to Isak one day.

A week after the cove, Even found a piece of driftwood and painted the word  _ Yishaq  _ on its face. Even explained it when Isak ran curious fingers over the wood.

“He laughs,” Even said, eyes crinkling around the edges. “It’s the origin of Isak, where the name came from. It’s why I chose it that day.  _ Yishaq, Isaac, Isak – he laughs _ . It’s beautiful, right? Your laugh was just so beautiful, it only made sense.”

That all seemed to be a bit much for Isak to process. So Even decided to give him time, letting the mermaid think it over as his face is peppered with kisses. 

 

It’s a Friday afternoon and the sky’s a heavy grey. They’re out on the dock, Isak reading one of Even’s biology texts while the human rapidly flips through a book about the ocean – Even thinks he’s onto something. He’s getting so close…

But that’s for Isak, too, but then the living, breathing creature beside him is totally irresistible. They leave the books on the dock – Even doesn’t worry. Isak’s waterproofed all of them as Even’s been developing a habit of leaving things out.

Even picks Isak up and carries him up to the cabin, reveling in the way that Isak’s tail is curled tight around his waist, and the way his pulse is quickening under Even’s lips.

Normally, Isak is quick-witted, always fast to remind Even not to drop him, quick to tease and quip – except for when Even holds him like this. It’s such a beautiful shock, the way the mermaid goes soft, the way he seems to forget how to use words and instead speaks almost entirely with action.

He pulls Even close to him in bed, pulls the duvet over them like he wants to hide them from the world. Even likes that, but he’d also like to throw it away, shout out to the whole world:  _ Look! Look at this love and this beauty! _

When Isak asks Even to wait so he can change forms, the human hushes him with a kiss, thumbs pressed into Isak’s cheekbones.

“Don’t,” Even says. “Stay like this. This is good. Want you – every way there is to have you.”

Even’s hand slides down, pressed first to Isak’s waist and then lower to slide firmly over the smooth sunstone scales. Even gives Isak a minute to respond, but it’s like he’s mute again – lips parted and eyes wide and wild.

It says enough.

So Even kisses him again – and again and again and again. He touches and holds, with hands and lips and body, until Isak’s tail wraps around him so tightly and the mermaid shakes apart entirely.

 

“How do we stay together forever, again?”

Isak’s cheek is resting against the windowsill at the head of Even’s bed. The human is sketching, attempting to capture the exact lazy line of Isak’s tail where it’s curling down the bed. He’s tried more than fifty times. It’s not right but he’s getting there.

“We ask the sea to let me keep you,” Isak murmurs, eyes sparkling under heavy eyelids.

Even nods, a wide smile growing on his face. A breeze slips in through the window and threatens to blow a few papers off Even’s desk.

“Then I can ask you to marry me.”

“What?” Isak says, picking his head up off his arms.

“Oh, you don’t think I’ll ask you to marry me? Because I definitely will. You just wait. It will be amazing and spectacular. I’ll get you a pearl engagement ring, and then I’ll build a house on top of that dock,” Even says, scooting up the bed so he can sit against the window with Isak.

Even looks out at the rickety old thing and makes diagrams and plans in his mind. He can see it right there in his mind’s eyes so clearly.

“It’ll be a grand house, made of recycled bottles – only blue glass ones of course – and there’ll be holes in the floor of every room, right to the water,” Even says with wide eyes. He laughs as he continues. “And people will come over and they’ll say, _ Even! Why are there holes in your floor?  _ And I’ll tell them,  _ Because my husband is a mermaid!” _

Isak is shaking his head back and forth a little, but a soft laugh escapes him so Even can only assume he’s on board.

“Okay?!” Even prompts.

“Okay,” Isak agrees, tail flipping back and forth.

There’s a  _ pit _ and then a  _ pat _ against the windowsill as raindrops begin to fall. One hits Isak on the nose and Even swears it just disappears. The mermaid sighs and reaches up to close the window.

“You can leave it open,” Even says.

Isak raises one brow and furrows the other.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Your bed will get all wet.”

Even shrugs but doesn’t protest further when Isak pulls it shut. That’s fine too; the sound of the raindrops on the glass is soothing. Isak sighs again, heavier this time.

“I have to go,” he says. “I promised Noora and Eskild I wouldn’t miss the  _ tidevann middag _ .”

According to Isak, ‘tide dinners’ came once every few months, held when the tide was the highest of the season. Even can see it out the window, sea trying to climb over the driftwood barrier between beach and the scrub grass. Even wants to see it all. He wants to see the caves, hear the nixie songs - have kelp flowers woven into his own hair. Isak explained each tradition with quiet words, and it made Even consider how long he could hold his breath if he really, really tried.

 

o o o

 

Isak wakes up in the middle of the night and hears muted roaring in the distance. What had been a gentle rain when Isak left Even’s grew to such an intense downpour by the time they finished the  _ tidevann middag _ that, when they came to the surface, Isak could barely hear the traditional nixie songs over the raindrops smacking against the surface of the fjord. Black clouds rolled over head, looking like an army of leviathans swimming through the sky.

It’s not the first time that Galalogfjord has weathered a storm, it’s not even the hundredth that Isak’s experienced – and yet this is the one that wakes him from a deep sleep, eyes wide and heart racing. He counts the little bioluminescent flowers hanging from the ceiling of the cave, tells himself to close his eyes.

He’s swimming through the mouth of the cave before he even realizes what he’s doing.

Isak’s head breaks the surface of the water and then is promptly covered again, waves rising over him. The fjord looks as if thousands of giants are dancing on shore, shaking the earth itself – it almost sounds that way too as thunder claps overhead.

The mermaid swims, just below the surface, head rising up every few moments to look – for what, he doesn’t know.

Sea spray stings his skin as he reaches the middle of the fjord. Lightning rolls through the black clouds just as Isak pushes his head above water once more. It seems to freeze the raindrops in midair, and that’s when Isak sees it.

A little boat at the crest of a wave.

Isak’s heart freezes in his chest. The lightning passes and the thunder comes. The world goes nearly black in its wake but Isak knows.

“Even…” he breathes in horror. 

He charges towards the vessel, flings himself out of the water.

_ “Even!” _

It’s a miracle the tiny rowboat has even made it so far in this weather. Isak jumps again, this time trying to aim precisely. He almost crashes back into the water, but instead he hits wood, sliding against the inner wall of the boat like a fish thrown onto a deck.

“Isak!”

The voice is jubilant, out of place and quickly carried off by the roaring winds.

“What are you doing?!” Isak shouts, eyes going wide as he slides across the bottom of the boat as they crest another wave.

“I’m going to talk to the Sea!” Even shouts. “I’m going to ask her to make me like you. If she could let you keep me, why wouldn’t she let me join you? I could be a mermaid, too!”

“What are you talking about?!” Isak gasps.

A cross wave slops water into the boat and the wind slaps Even’s hair across his forehead. He’s wearing a hoodie, saturated fabric clinging to his shoulders.  

“She’s here! Can’t you feel her?!” Even says, eyes crinkling as they run with rain.

“Feel who?!” Isak says as he tries to grab onto one of the bench seats.

“The Sea!” Even throws his arms out wide and Isak’s heart jumps into throat.

Even just barely grabs the oars before they slide fully into the water. Lightning streaks through the clouds again, cutting Even’s face bright against the sky. Isak’s heart thuds out a rapid rhythm against his ribs. He’s confused and lost. Flashes of another storm from another age blink through his head.

Isak’s eyes are drawn to Even’s blue lips and is suddenly painfully aware what time of year it is. It won’t be long before ice starts to crust on the shore. Through the chaos, Isak can still see that Even is shaking violently.

“Even, you have to get to shore!” Isak shouts but the human doesn’t seem to hear him.

The mermaid tries to steady himself enough to sit up and get Even’s attention. The human’s eyes don’t deviate from the horizon, like maybe there  _ is  _ a sort of elemental being waiting for him at the mouth of the fjord.

“Even –” Isak begins again but then the boat isn’t horizontal anymore.

What amazing luck that Even’s had up until this moment that allowed him to navigate the near mountains of waves has promptly run out. The wave catches them on the starboard side, drawing them up and tipping them sideways. Isak sees it in slow motion: Even sliding across the bench seat. The oars slipping from his numb hands.

They capsize.

Everything is forced underwater. Something hits Isak in the head, hard – the hull, an oar, Isak doesn’t know – and his vision goes black.

When he gets his senses back, he’s disoriented. The water is so rough and the currents are so chaotic that the mermaid can hardly tell what direction is up. He swims towards the bottom for at least five wasted seconds before he realizes he’s going the wrong direction.

Where is Even.

It’s the only thought in his head.

He breaks the surface.

_ “Even!” _

His screams are drowned in the storm. He looks in all directions, for Even, for the boat, for anything. The waves shift, and Isak thinks he sees the underside of the boat’s hull a little way off. He dives in that direction.

_ Even! _

He’s floating, slack, some feet under the surface, body at the mercy of the currents. Isak’s yanking him towards the surface before he even realizes what he’s doing.

“Even!” he tries as soon as their heads are above water.

The human’s eyes are closed, hair slicked to his head, his lips parted. There are tears on Isak’s face as he begins to haul Even towards Galalog as fast as he possibly can.

“Even!  _ Even!” _ he tries, but there’s no movement in his arms.

He can’t even feel warmth against his skin. Isak gasps and chokes on air, but he keeps swimming. His vision is blurry but he keeps moving. It feels like it takes ages, Even’s deadweight as Isak tries to swim as fast as possible while keeping Even’s head above water. He doesn’t realize they’ve arrived until their bodies crash to shore, pebbles crunching under their bodies. A wave comes up behind them, tumbling them over, kicking them further up the beach. Isak’s tail lashes like a shark on a fishing line. He’s almost stunned.

He doesn’t let go of Even, though. Isak transforms. His human legs feel weak, and even though he’s got Even out of the fjord, the helplessness feels even more intense as his knees buckle the first time he tries to stand. The cold is apparent to him in this form and makes Isak terrifyingly aware of what danger Even is in.

_ “Help!” _ Isak screams, hooking his arms under Even’s armpits.

He tries to pull Even up the beach, towards the buildings by the shore. Even’s too heavy though, larger than Isak, and the seafolk’s feet keep sliding through the pebbles. Another sob bubbles up in Isak’s chest when he realizes it’s the middle of the night in a storm, which begs the question why would any human be on the beach right now?

Only, then there’s a light on Isak’s face. It stings his eyes but there’s never been a more welcome pain.

“Oy! What’s happening down there?” someone calls from the access road that runs down the beach towards the docks.

It’s a group of men in huge raincoats, flashlights in hand. The ropes crossed over their bodies make Isak realize that they’re fishermen, heading out to the docks to make sure their boats are secure in the storm. They’re also Isak’s saviors. 

“Help me!” Isak calls again. “Help,  _ please!” _

The men rush forward. Rocks crunch under their feet and Isak tries to move toward them. His footing goes and his knees hit the beach again. Even’s head rests against his shoulder.

“What happened?” one of them asks in a voice roughened by years of shouting over storms.

“He was in the water,” is all that Isak gets out.

The tear tracks on his face are a hot contrast to the cold rain still pouring down. There are more hands on Even now, pulling them up. Isak gives into them all standing on shaking legs. 

“Karl, call Doctor Skrulle. Anders – go on to Silje’s and get her to put as many towels as she can fit in the oven. Tell her what’s happened and she’ll know what to do.”

What appears to be the youngest fisherman takes off down the road. The biggest man attempts to pull Even fully away from Isak and the mermaid panics.

“It’s alright, boy. I got him,” he says, hefting Even into his arms. The boy’s head lolls over the man’s arm. “Do you know him? Do you know his parents phone numbers?”

Isak just shakes his head and suddenly he feels like he can’t take another step. His knees threaten to give out as the group moves towards Galalog.

The storm keeps raging and the men keep moving and Even tried to row out in the middle of a winter storm to talk to the sea tonight. He wants to follow, needs to see if Even’s okay, but he can’t. 

Isak crumples, unable to hold human form. The men are on the road now, running towards Silge and her hot towels and a doctor. Isak can only lash his tail against the beach and try to get back to the fjord. Halfway down the beach his arms buckle and he simply curls his tail around himself.

His fingers dig into his hair and he lets the storm wash over him.

 

o o o

 

Isak is waiting in Even’s inlet when a car rolls up to the cabin early the next morning, after the storm has passed. He keeps himself low and hidden as a man and a pair of women get out of the car. Isak is frozen until the man goes to the back door and opens it. They’re far away but Isak has no doubt it’s Even under the man’s arm. He’s moving slowly, hobbling and heavy-looking with what appears to be a blanket around his shoulders, but he’s  _ okay _ .

He’s alive. He’s okay. He’s alive.

Isak’s still scared and confused and shaken beyond anything he’s ever experienced, but Even’s okay which means he can at least breathe.

The mermaid spends the next half of the day swimming up and down the shore of the fjord, never straying more than a ten minute swim away from Even’s cabin. He can’t approach and ask any of the million questions he has while the other humans are there.

By the time the sun begins to sink, Isak can’t wait any longer and he comes up with a plan B. He swims ashore a little way down the coast from Even’s cabin and transforms. He walks a little inland and then finds the path he knows leads from town to Even’s. He goes over his story in his head again as he walks. He knows enough details from Even’s stories that he’s pretty sure he can easily pretend to be a classmate of his.

The cabin and the car come into view and Isak takes steadying breaths and speeds his steps, lest he loses his resolve.

“Hello?”

The voice coming from his left about gives Isak a heart attack. He startles, nearly tripping against the car.

_ “Unnskyld, _ I didn’t mean to scare you.”

There’s a pretty girl sitting on one of the driftwood logs that frame the path. Isak is at a complete loss for words, unprepared for anything outside of his plan. He can’t do anything but stare at her.

She seems less surprised by Isak’s presence. She must see something in him that means something to her.

“You’re… you’re Isak aren’t you?”

Isak’s lips part in shock. The girl had been messing with her phone but now slides it into her pocket.

“Um.”

It’s not exactly an answer, but apparently it’s enough for her.

“Sorry… I don’t know if Even’s told you anything about me. I’m Sonja,” she says, spinning a ring around her thumb with her left hand. “Even’s ex.”

This whole situation keeps veering further and further off course for Isak. He expected parents, maybe a friend or other family member. He didn’t expect an ex-girlfriend.

“Is Even okay?” Isak says - he doesn’t have much scripted beyond the scope his plan and before anything else, he needs to know.

“He’s going to be okay,” Sonja says, her voice subdued. “Physically at least.”

Isak’s brow furrows.

“What does that mean?”

Sonja’s lips twitch down into a frown.

“He hasn’t told you about that either… do you want to sit down?” Sonja asks, and Isak doesn’t know what else to do except take a seat on the log next to her.

She pulls one knee up to her chest.

“I assume he texted you which is why you’re here,” Sonja starts and Isak doesn’t correct her. Clearly nobody knows who exactly pulled Even out of the water yesterday. “But I don’t know how much he told you about last night. He went out in the storm and almost drowned. According to what he was saying when he woke up, he was planning on asking the ocean to become a sea creature… or something. He was convinced the storm was the God of the Sea visiting.”

Isak swallows hard, and his hands shake a little at the memory.

“He did it because he had a bad manic episode,” Sonja says, eyes on Isak’s face. When it’s clear the mermaid has no clue what she’s talking about she goes on. “Even is  _ bipolar _ . He’s sick. Sometimes he gets manic, and barely sleeps and he gets these ideas in his head. Then sometimes he’s really down. It affects his head.”

“I don’t…” Isak doesn’t know what to say.

Sonja presses on, brow furrowed. 

“Look… I know you and Even have a thing. His mom called me when the doctor got ahold of her. She thought maybe I could help… I don’t know. We’ve all known each other a long time. I was seeing him when he had his first bad episodes. It’s why he moved here, you know. We all thought it was a bad idea but… sometimes he just makes his mind up… anyway. His mom told me on the way down that he’s been talking about a boy he’s been seeing,” Sonja says.

Isak’s hands are balled into fists on his knees, scared of the weird emotions in Sonja’s eyes. He expects resentment, but more than anything he thinks he sees pity.

“I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but even though we’re not together anymore I do still care about Even and I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to see him right now,” she says.

“Why?” Isak says, heart speeding up.

“It’s just… he’s decided you’re magic. At least that’s what he’s been telling his mom on the phone.  _ Isak is magical, he’s got the sea in him _ . Then yesterday morning he apparently told her that you were an actual mermaid,” Sonja says and Isak’s throat tightens. Sonja presses on. “He’s running away from what happened in Oslo. He’s just fixating on you and on this place… I know how he gets. I know you probably think he’s in love with you…”

There’s a ringing in Isak’s ears. The grasses around them wave wildly in the residual wind, the trailing skirt of the storm. Not even the clothes transformed from his kelp bangles can keep the cold from Isak as Sonja continues.

“But he’s not. He just thinks you’re some sort of magical creature. You’re tied into this fantasy he has… so just… I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to see him anymore. Not if you’re what made him want to jump into the ocean.”

Isak can’t look at her. He can’t look at anything, just stares emptily. Sonja’s wrong. He  _ is  _ magical. He’s a mermaid and that’s not part of any sort of fantasy.

“I am sorry,” Sonja says as she stands. “Isak.”

She says his name as a goodbye. And it rings in his head:  _ Isak. Isak. Isak.  _ She moves back towards the cabin.

Isak  _ is _ magical. The selkies, the nixies, and the humming power of Galalogfjord are real. None of them are figments of a dream. Sonja is wrong about all of that.

But she’s not wrong about one thing.

Even rowed out into a storm last night. He went out to speak to the Sea and was nearly swallowed by it.

And that  _ was  _ for Isak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot wait to hear what you all think of this one. Please please comment and let me know! The next chapter will be up as soon as possible! 
> 
> Thank you all for your awesome feedback so far it's been making this so so so fun to work on.
> 
> If you like the fic I'd super appreciate a reblog of this post [here](https://moonlitbird.tumblr.com/post/157799074293/it-comes-in-waves-rating-mature-total-words)!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to [Kath](https://minyard03andrew.tumblr.com) and [Felicia](https://hamiltrashton.tumblr.com) for all of their help with this one!
> 
> I also normally do this in the end comments but I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who's commented and given feedback on this story. I've loved every comment and so enjoy everything that everyone's been getting out of this story so far.
> 
> Relevant Translations:  
> Grøftfeer – Trench fairies  
> Svartmunn – Blackmouth  
> Nanveløse – the Nameless One  
> Havfruer – Mermaids  
> Smal – Skinny  
> Gull – Gold
> 
> Also, most of the mythical creatures in this story I've at least taken the seed of from real stories, but the Grøftfeer are totally made up. Just so you don't go on a wild goose chase if you try and google them haha. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Even drifts. The high fades, like the mirage of an oasis disappearing – except Even’s part of the illusion and he’s evaporating, too. Everything good dissipates, leaving only aches and bruises and an awful yawning emptiness in his chest.

When Even woke up there was a doctor.

Then his parents.

And Sonja.

The cabin feels colder than it ever has before.

And Even’s a fool.

He pulls the curtain more fully over the window. Just moving his hand the few inches feels overwhelming. The shadows on the ceiling seem frozen and Even sinks deeper into the mattress. He wants to sleep and yet his eyes won’t go past half-mast.

There’s a soft knock on the door.

“Even, I brought you some dinner.

Sonja – no, Sonja already went back to Oslo. She apologized. She told him she hopes he feels better, and she’ll always care about him. Then she went home.

“Even?”

It must be his mom then. In the distance Even can hear a wave roll up on the shore.

“Even…?”

He can’t see it, but he knows that the wave rolls back out again.

 

o o o

 

Isak drifts.

_ “Gull,  _ do you need anything?”

Noora’s head peeks around the wall of the shallow cave where Isak’s resting. In the summer, sunlight filters down through the holes in the ceiling from the surface, but it’s winter now and the washed out grey light doesn’t reach through the fjord. Isak looks up from where he’s reading  _ den lille havfrue  _ for the fourth time in half as many days.

“Jonas and the others are looking for you,” she says, voice soft.

Both Noor and Eskild have been speaking to him like that since that night. He told them some of what happened, and yet it already seems that, in only days, the entire fjord knows what Isak’s human did on the night of the storm.

Isak rouses himself, movements slow but steady.

“Hey, Isak” Jonas says where he’s waiting at the mouth of the caves, flippers treading back and forth. Mahdi and Magnus wait behind him while Eskild shoots them the stink eye. “The  _ grøftfeer _ have started migrating. You want to come down and watch with us?”

Isak knows he can’t hide in his cave forever and he doesn’t want everyone to worry, either. He’s noticed the way that Noora and Eskild’s eyes follow him especially closely – giving him odd flashbacks to those hazy days after he arrived in Galalogfjord. He’s also oddly finding that he doesn’t really want to be alone either, not when his chest is aching like it’s been. So Isak shrugs and nods.

“Why not?”

It lights a small smile to Jonas’ eyes and Magnus gives him an encouraging bob of his head.

“Here,” Noora says, handing Isak a parcel of red material tied around a deep bowl. “Fish cakes! I made some this morning.”

They’re Isak’s favorite and he knows Noora must have made them for that very reason. He ignores Mahdi and Magnus’ excitement as well as Eskild’s whining that he hasn’t even got to eat one. Instead, on a whim, Isak gives Noora a one armed hug. She freezes a little in surprise, but is quick to return the embrace.

“Thank you,” Isak says when he pulls away, sincerely, even if he can’t return Noora’s smile.

 

_ Grøftfeer  _ are an odd brand of seafolk. The tiny pixies live most of their lives in the crushing depths of oceanic trenches. Then, once every decade or so, the whole lot of them will make their way to the surface and migrate north to breed under the icecap.

Isak and the selkie boys rest at the edge of the Svartmunn, the cavern that plunges into the depths of the seafloor beyond the mouth of Galalogfjord.  The selkie boys have stripped off their seal skins so they can nibble on fishcakes as a wonder rises up before them.

Thousands of  _ grøftfeer, _ none longer than Isak’s hnd, float up from the depths on the backs of frilled jellyfish. Their skins glow with colors and lights, and their black pearl eyes are sharp as an angler’s teeth. The  _ grøftfeer  _ have no language that Isak nor the others can understand – except Sana to some extent. It’s almost as if they belong to another world entirely – one more feral and dark.

They sure are pretty to look at, though.

The peaceful silence only lasts so long. Isak’s been expecting it to break since the boys settled atop their skins and the food was doled out. 

“So… what happened, then?” Jonas asks in a low voice. “With Even.”

Isak doesn’t look up from the trench. It looks like stars are leaking out from a faraway realm.

“He took a little boat and rowed out into the middle of a storm,” Isak says.

Only Jonas speaks, but Isak knows Magnus and Mahdi are listening to Isak just as eagerly. A sparkling cyan sprite floats upwards on a pink jelly. Isak reaches his hand out, but pulls it back when the  _ grøftfe  _ turns and bares a set of needle teeth.

Look but don’t touch. Isak should know better.

“Why?” Jonas asks. “Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s sick,” Isak says, picking at the seaweed wrapped around his fishcake. “He has a thing… with is head.”

“What kind of thing?”

With his appetite decidedly gone, Isak sends the fishcake floating into the trench. About ten  _ grøftfeer  _ abandon their cushioned mounts to make for the food.

“It’s called  _ bipolar _ . Apparently it makes him really happy sometimes – or, like, it gives him all this energy and makes it so he just… does things without thinking. That’s why he went out in the storm… but then I guess other times it’s the opposite and he gets really, really low.”

Isak’s heart twinges at that, but he can’t deal with thinking too much about the rest, not if he wants to stay any form of okay. He waits for Jonas’ response, but it’s Magnus who cuts in.

“Oh! My mom has that!”

All the boys turn to look at him, Jonas and Mahdi with interest and Isak with intense focus.

_ “What?” _

“Well, we don’t call it…  _ bipolar? _ We call it being moon-pulled, but it’s basically the same thing,” Magnus says, stuffing a whole fishcake in his mouth.

_ “Nei!” _ Mahdi says in disbelief.

Magnus just gives him a look back.

“What? You two don’t know it? Everyone in my birth herd knew about it,” Magnus says, and Isak only listens in silence as the selkies hash it out. “I suppose our herd was really big and had a bunch of elders. Also we did come up from southwaters… maybe it doesn’t happen much in the north…”

“Why would it happen any more in the south than it would in the north?” Jonas says, brows furrowed deeply.

“I did once know a selkie from north of Oslo who had two tails,” Mahdi adds, which turns Jonas’ disdain away from Magnus.

“What’s that got to do with  _ anything?” _

Mahdi just shrugs and Magnus leans around him to speak to Isak directly again.

“No, but my mom is fucking awesome. Once when I was a pup, she was in a high-tide and got mad that these new fishers were taking too much out of our bay, so one morning she climbed up the side of their boat –  _ naked, with her skin tied around her neck like a cape –  _ and cut all their nets. She stood up on the bow of the ship as all these birds swarmed around and the fisherman stared, totally dumbfounded… my god it was so funny.”

Isak is very quiet as the selkies discuss the specifics of Magnus’ mother’s adventure. Isak processes the new information slowly. He looks deep into the cavern, tries to pick out the first signs of rising  _ grøftfeer  _ as they become visible. His tail sways back and forth as his brow furrows even deeper.

“I’ve… I met your mother, right?” Isak says and the rest of them go quiet.

Magnus smiles.

“Yeah! She visited with her pack for the Summer Solstice one year!”

Isak remembers. She was vibrant and young looking, especially for a selkie who’d born a pup – it didn’t happen very often after all. Selkies usually showed some age after raising young, but Magnus’ mother hadn’t looked much different in age than Eva, or Vilde, or Magnus himself. She wore bright scales in her hair and when they’d swam along the coast, she happily threw her sleek body into the summer sky with teh best of them.

And she’d been kind to Isak. 

“So, have you gone to see Even, then?” Magnus asks, reaching for another handful of fishcakes.

Isak shakes his head.

“I talked to a… friend of his. She said I shouldn’t see him anymore, that it wasn’t good for him. She said his feelings were all…  _ mania,” _ Isak says, the word tasting weird on his tongue.

Magnus snorts.

“That’s stupid. Being moon-pulled doesn’t make up feelings like that. Has he been in high-tide for _months?_ When we met him he definitely didn’t seem ‘manic’.”

Isak presses his lips together, shoulders curling forward.

“Well… he was different in the week or two before it happened,” Isak admits.

Magnus nods as he eats his food.

“See? So what’s the problem then? It’s likely he’s in low-tide after a high one like that, if it really is like being moon-pulled. Based on how he was with you, he probably really wants to see you,” Magnus says.

Jonas tips his head back and forth but seems to agree. Then he sends a soft smile towards Isak. The mermaid curls his tail around himself. It’s not that he thinks Magnus is wrong, now that he’s heard it explained in so many words.

It just doesn’t matter.

“I can’t. Maybe Even does lo—have real feelings towards me – ” Isak can’t say  _ that _ , not when he’ll never hear Even say it. He saw it in Even’s eyes, felt it in his touch, heard it in a thousand other things that Even’s said. The exact words though… “Even if he does, I can’t see him.”

“Why?” Mahdi asks, eyes calm and free of judgement.

“Because what if it happens again? What if he has another high-tide—manic episode, whatever—and this time I don’t save him?” Isak says, throat tight.

Two  _ grøftfeer  _ share a ride on a large purple jelly as they float by Isak. One is red and the other is yellow and together they look a bit like a flame in the water.

“Well that’s just stupid.”

It’s Magnus’ voice that catches Isak off guard. He looks over at the usually good-spirited selkie. He doesn’t look angry but  _ his _ face definitely isn’t without judgement.

“What?”

“Everyone has  _ something  _ that might kill them,” Magnus says, digging into the fishcake bowl. He frowns when he finds there’s nothing left, and settles back onto his spot atop his skin.

“I can’t just… what if wanting to join me is what leads to him dying?” Isak says incredulously. “What if it’s something else that seems like a good idea when he’s manic? I can’t handle that.”

Isak knows he couldn’t. Seeing Even in the water, floating, limp – it almost stopped his heart.

“So? I mean, maybe Even dies because the tide takes him too high or too low. I can’t say it’s impossible,  _ Smal _ – but so what? Like I said, everyone has something about them that might kill them. Maybe my mom climbs aboard another fishing boat and gets shot with a harpoon,” Jonas grimaces but Magnus seems unfazed. “One of these  _ grøftfeer  _ will almost certainly get eaten by a narwhale before they reach the pole. Maybe Sana goes too far with her magic one day and it turns on her. I’m just saying… everyone has something. Are you going to stop being friends with us because we’re more likely to get eaten by an orca?”

Isak opens his mouth and then closes it again. He can’t meet Magnus’s eyes or look at any of the others.

“Damn. I never knew you were such a philosopher,” Mahdi said, looking at Magnus with a bit of awe.

“Mahdi, really? I’ve always been a genius.”

That makes Mahdi lose some of his wonder.

“Yesterday you asked me if oceanids lay eggs.”

They sound far away as Magnus tries to defend himself. Jonas leans into Isak just a bit, shoulders bumping together.

“ _ Smal,  _ you alright…?”

Isak just shrugs. All he wants to do is go see Even – but he’s scared of what he’ll find if he does. And he can’t help but picture Even’s body disappearing into the black of the Svartmunn _. _

“I don’t know.”

 

o o o 

 

Even’s parents stay about a week after the  _ incident _ . His dad heads back on a Monday and his mother waits until she sees Even put his headphones in and come out into the living room of his own free will before packing her own bags up. It’s a Wednesday. 

“I made up a bunch of meals that you can just heat up and I’ll call you after work. I can come back down early next week after the conference. You’re sure you won’t come back to Oslo with me, just for the weekend?” she asks, tidying up the room as she talks.

He knows that she tries her hardest, but she’s not the type who is good with situations she can’t do anything about. Her energy has to go somewhere, which is one of many reasons that Even can’t go back to Oslo.

Even spends the next few hours searching for acoustic Disney covers on Youtube without the energy to even ignore the fact that almost every other cover is of  _ Part of Your World.  _ Even had been looking it up before everything went away, wanting to teach it to Jonas – sure he’d get good use of it.

Even looks up at the guitar hanging on the wall and wonders if it’s got any magic in its strings, since it’s been played by a selkie now. They had two lessons in the wake of Even’s offer. The selkie picked things up fast. Apparently the guitar wasn’t so different from some of the other instruments he’s played over the years. There was a natural musical skill there, too. Even had idly fantasized about making music with the selkie one day, if they could sync their styles up… It feels like a different life, like a dream that lasted months on end.

Selkies on the beach. Isak on the couch, sipping spiced tea, while Even taught a magical creature how to tune a guitar.

Even pulls the headphones out, the songs suddenly becoming exhausting to listen to.

He goes back to his bedroom and pulls the window open as wide as it will go. Cold winds roll over the sill but Even’s piled all the blankets in the house atop his bed. He cocoons himself and then just breathes in, filling his lungs over and over with the smell of the sea.

 

“Such a shame about your human,  _ Smal.” _

Vilde and Eva are in human form, skins tied around them like wraps. Isak had come looking for Jonas and the others at the Great Rocks after a morning spent sulking around the mouth of Even’s inlet. He hadn’t found the boys, but he had found Eva and Vilde helping Sana collect red algae in the shallows.

“I mean, I’d never get involved with a human myself,” Vilde continues, “But Magnus and Mahdi said you two seemed pretty in love so that’s really sad that it didn’t work out.”

Eva sends Isak a sympathetic look before shooting a reproachful and amused look at Vilde.

“Never get involved with a human?! Vilde, you made out with that girl with the pink hair for like an hour when we were at the Salthouse last weekend,” Eva chides, laughing as she references the Galalog bar favored by the Selkies.

“That does  _ not _ count, Eva! It wasn’t  _ serious _ . When I get seriously into someone and think about taking a mate, I’ll definitely be with a good, Northern Selkie boy,” Vilde says with a smile that dissolves suddenly into an eyeroll. “Not that I’ll ever get a chance in  _ Galalogfjord.” _

“What is  _ that _ supposed to mean?” Eva scoffs.

Isak busies himself with filling his kelp basket rather than add anything to the conversation. It feels good to be doing something productive, especially now that it seems that Eva has directed the conversation in a much more favorable direction. Sana also stays quiet, but watches the proceedings with bright eyes.

“I just mean we don’t exactly have a herd or even a  _ real  _ pack here to attract any other selkies to come and stay here. I mean, I thought maybe something might happen when you and Jonas were courting,” Vilde goes on, and Eva rolls her eyes. “But we all know that didn’t work out…”

Isak focuses even more closely on pulling algae off the rocks. The topic of Jonas and Eva always makes him uncomfortable. The selkies were courting each other when Isak washed up in Galalogfjord. While it isn’t uncommon for selkies to pair off just to raise a pup or two before returning to a non-monogamous lifestyle, others do mate for life. From what Isak’s heard over the long years, that’s where everyone thought Eva and Jonas had been going. Jonas insisted Eva had her reasons for deciding they should return to a platonic relationship, and a long list of them at that – they were young, for selkie standards, and made mistake after mistake – but Isak can’t help but think about the fact that, before he came to Galalogfjord, Eva and Jonas were courting, and after a year or so of Isak following Jonas around like a dazed pilotfish after a shark, that all went away.

Isak doesn’t remember much from those early months, the memories hazy and nearly symbolic, like the minutes between a dream and the day. Yet, Isak always wonders if something about his coming was the pebble that began the avalanche.

At least, that’s how Isak used to feel. He rubs his thumb against the soft texture of the algae he’s harvesting. Now, he’s beginning to realize… sometimes it just isn’t meant to be. Isak feels Sana’s eyes on him and he glances up. Her eyes are narrowed. Isak swallows and feigns attention to the girls’ conversation.

“Things are fine just the way they are,” Eva tells Vilde, unruffled by her commentary.

“I know they’re  _ fine _ , but don’t you ever wonder what it would be like to be part of a real group? Like the Presteørdkilen Herd! They had like  _ fifty _ when we visited for the solstice last year. How exciting would that be? Oh! Or what about being part of the Wavecutter Pack?!”

“The Wavecutters are nothing but a bunch of wild boys who spend their days riding riptides and their nights in port cities bedding humans. They’ve no true respect for the Sea,” Sana says, floating over from where she’s been picking  _ something  _ out of the rocks by the surface.

Eva snorts, but Vilde seems unbothered by Sana’s assessment.

“They don’t  _ just  _ bed humans. Christoffer has shown  _ serious  _ interest in Eva whenever the Wavecutters have visited recently. Oh! Eva what if you court Chris? You could convince him to come stay in Galalog and make a pack here! I bet Chris would make a great pack chief.”

Eva is saved from having to respond to  _ that _ by a firm shutdown from Sana.

“The role of chief in Galalog is destined for Jonas. He will rise to it… eventually,” she says, with an odd mixture of support and judgement.

Vilde pouts a little at that, but on the whole it seems like she’ll recover. Isak knows Selkie social structure is rather complicated and incredibly foreign to him, especially considering Galalogfjord’s selkies are in a bit of a loose organization. He doesn’t exactly have a lot of competition for top mermaid after all, so he’s just happy to exist in whatever mixed not-pack that’s rooted itself in Galalogfjord.

“Alright, I think I have enough algae to replenish my stocks,” Sana says as she inspects their baskets. She closes the lids up and begins to attempt to gather the large containers.

“Here. I’ll help,” Isak says, swimming forward to pull the largest basket into his arms.

“Thank you… Isak,” Sana says, making the mermaid flinch.

He mumbles out a response and keeps his head down as he follows Sana towards the mouth of Galalogfjord.

 

The Sea Witch lives in a series of grottos and caves at the bottom of the fjord. Glowing pools spill light into the dark waters to the point that you’d feel like you were only feet under the surface, even though it would take minutes of swimming upward to get there. Sana’s domain is never empty, constantly occupied or visited by various sea creatures and seafolk. A pair of deepwater oceanids that Isak’s never seen before sit atop some rocks, bubbling to each other. Neither acknowledge their approach as Isak and Sana get close to the main cove. A massive basking shark is resting around the edge of the grotto and Sana trails her fingers down its side as they touch down on the ocean floor.

The center of Sana’s small domain is a bowl shaped depression in the seafloor that opens up to a dropoff, with the wide ocean beyond. The walls of stone are lined with a million things that Isak couldn’t even identify the half of – there are piles of oyster shells, baskets of seaweed, strings of fishbones, little bottles filled with swirling lights… it goes on and on.

Isak sets the baskets down as Sana instructs him. She grabs a handful of some other type of vegetation and tosses it into the hole at the center of the grotto. It begins to bubble and emit a bright, blue-green light. She then floats over to another basket and begins filtering through the contents. Isak isn’t quite sure if he’s still needed or if this is a dismissal.

“Um…”

Sana floats back over, moving towards the drop off. She casts a cloud of a silty substance out into the water and then looks over her shoulder.

“You can leave… if that’s what you want, Isak.”

Her eyes say she has an answer, if only he has the guts to ask the question.

He wants to go back home and eat Noora’s fishcakes and sleep until the sun comes out again.

“Why do you call me that?” he asks instead.

“Because it’s your name.”

Isak’s tail curls around a rock, anchoring himself.

“I don’t remember my name,” Isak tells her. “I don’t think it was Isak.”

Sana moves about her cove, collecting things, and rearranging. She looks at Isak whenever she speaks though, a glance over her shoulder.

“No. Whatever name you took or were given when you came into this world is lost forever. It was gone when you arrived here – and you haven’t taken a new one since, have you?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Isak insists.

“Yes, you do,  _ Isak, _ ” Sana cuts him off – and Isak ducks his head.  _ Isak. Isak. Isak. _ “And if you’re going to be like  _ that  _ then you should just go home now – or you can stay and finally learn the truth.”

The truth… Isak doesn’t know what truth she’s talking about. There’s so much he doesn’t know, so many things he’s been far too scared to ask, far too many things he just didn’t care to think about…

Isak stays where he is.

“Good. So, when will you go see your human?”

It pushes Isak over the edge. He’s always felt like he has to be on guard around Sana, but it feels like something is chewing on his heart. He doesn’t have the energy to put up a front anymore.

“I can’t. Even’s sick, and I don’t know how to help or make it better. I don’t know anything about human illness… I’m the worst possible person he could be with. And the sea isn’t safe for him,” Isak says.

Sana stops her work and comes to sit on a boulder near Isak. She tilts her head to the side.

“Did it ever occur to you that maybe Galalogfjord called to him like it called to you? That maybe he belongs to her just as much as any of us do?” Sana says.

Isak’s brow knits at that and he settles beside Sana near the drop off, resting his chin on a large, flat boulder.

“Galalogfjord almost killed him,” Isak says.

“Oh…? From what the waters whisper, it sounds like she brought you to him,” Sana says, flowing skirts swaying as she settles on a rock.

“Look, it’s just… it’s not meant to be. Everyone was right in the beginning. Seafolk and humans aren’t meant to mix – not like that. I never should have let him see me… I shouldn’t have gone back when he did,” Isak grits out, squeezing his hands into fists.

“But you did. And you kept going back. Because you love him,” Sana says, simply, as if observing that the water is blue. “You wish you hadn’t gone back, even though he’s taught you how to recognize the love that was already around you?”

Isak glowers out into the sea, digging his chin into his arms.

“What does that even  _ mean?” _

Sana doesn’t reply right away. She lets Isak stew just long enough that he feels bad for snapping at her. The frustration drains out of him quickly – or, more accurately, it cools back into the hurt it stemmed from. Sana tips her head to the side and looks deek into Isak’s eyes when he finally meets her gaze. She’s studying him, making decisions. Having used all his energy on the single outburst, Isak says nothing, just lets her look.

“Isak… the one I thought might be  _ Nanveløse  _ forever, do you want to know why you woke in Galalogfjord without a name?” Sana says.

Isak swallows hard. He pushes himself up and curls his tail underneath himself. His sun tinted fins catch in the currents, fluttering slowly. She waits and finally takes his silence as an answer. She looks out into the open water.

“Not all Seafolk are the same, you know,” she begins. “The division, seafolk, humans, animals… it’s not so simple as you might think. All Seafolk have some magic in their own right, but where that power comes from…? Take our selkies, they are children of the earth and sea, born of that union. Their existence is vibrant and tangible – the birth of a pup, the blooming of a flower, the pounding of a waterfall… Whereas the  _ grøftfeer  _ are another thing entirely. They’re beings of primal power, remnants of something that hasn’t been seen in its pure form since the dawn of time…”

Isak’s eyes narrow, listening closely. Bubbles rise up from the deep, growing and shaking as they race towards the surface.

“The nixies – and most of the fae folk - are creatures of sentient magics, the spirts of the sea mixed with those earthly magics that breathe life into the world…”

Isak doesn’t know why this is relevant, but he’s caught up in her words.

“And mermaids?” he asks softly.

Sana’s eyes go soft, perhaps pleased that he’s finally engaging, that he wants to know. Because Isak does. He wants to know why he is the way that he is. Why he’s alone. Why he’s been alone, even when he wasn’t.

“ _ Havefuer _ … they’re different. Like the  _ grøftfeer,  _ you are not an offspring of earthly life, but the magic that you come from is different than theirs. You are a pure child of the Sea. You are waves in the sun, currents on the coast, the spray from a whale’s breath,” Sana says with a warm fondness that Isak can’t really understand. The words resonate, though. They go to his bones. “You share some of the same magic with the nixies, which is why you can perform their spells, but there is no earth in your body.”

The happiness fades from Sana’s face, turning melancholic as she tracks the streams of bubbles growing in front of them.

“Which is why you may be the last mermaid in this world,” Sana says, eyes full of regret. She looks over at Isak, pity in her face. “I’m sorry,  _ Isak. _ That magic… it’s faded. It drained away, only remains in the forgotten corners of the ocean… like Galalogfjord.”

Isak’s fingers dig into stone. It’s nothing he didn’t know, deep in his heart. It’s why he never wanted to ask. Those shadowy faces in his head – they’re never coming back.

“Which brings me back to the original question, why it is that you have no memories before you came here. Mermaids aren’t just children of the soul of the Sea, but also of her love. Her  _ havfuer  _ were beings of magic and  _ love _ . It’s everything, Isak,” Sana says. “I don’t know what happened to you before the sea brought you to Galalogfjord, but the reason you remember nothing is because you almost  _ were  _ nothing.”

“What does that mean?” Isak says, heart racing as his first memories stir beneath the surface – fear and hurt and a great storm.

“Do you know how mermaids die?” Sana asks.

Isak shakes his head.

“Emptiness,” Sana says and the water feels cold. “If all the magic left the world, the  _ havfruer _ would be lost forever, I suppose. But if there is a drop of magic around them, they might survive… as long as they have love.”

“Love?”

“Mermaids were never meant to be all alone. They used to live in pairs, in families, in shoals – sometimes with other mermaids, sometimes with other seafolk, but always  _ with _ ,” Sana explains. “I once knew a  _ havfrue  _ who watched over a family of blue whales. She traveled with them, watched each new generation live, and grow, and love… but if a  _ havfrue _ is lost, if they’re broken, and reduced to an emptied heart… the sea takes them back.”

“Is that… what happened to me?” Isak says – why doesn’t he remember? Why hasn’t he been able to feel it, all these years, why hasn’t he seen it?

“You had seafoam in your veins when Eskild found you,” Sana said. “I was shocked that you even had a form when he brought you to me. Your tail used to be a myriad of colors, you know, but they faded before my eyes. Though… I personally think this suits you.”

Isak snorts, the statement feeling so out of place in light of all the realizations. Sana sobers quickly and Isak follows suit.

“I tried to save you – I gave you potions made from seahorse hearts, salves infused with tears of joy, tied lover’s knots around your wrists… I don’t know if any of it actually helped heal you. Honestly, I don’t think it did much but hold off the inevitable… I think the act itself is what brought you back. The magic of Galalogfjord gave you a fighting chance, but then Jonas and Eva found me treating you with Eskild, Noora, and Linn – and they all spent weeks trying to revive you. I don’t know what Jonas saw in you… but I never felt more confident that he’d be chief here one day than when he swam a week down the coast to find me a cracked abalone shell to try to use to wake you…” Sana says and Isak’s heart thumps hard in his chest.

“Why… why did they do that?” Isak says.

Sana shrugs.

“Who knows... you were not the first one Galalogfjord adopted, Isak. Whatever it was, it was their hearts that saved you,” Sana says. “But when you came back… I’m not sure you ever really… came back. Part of you was here, but there was something in you that we could never quite mend.”

Sana quirks her head to the side and looks as Isak as shadows begin to rise from the black. A pair of minke whales swim towards the surface, chasing the trails of bubbles that have been leading them upwards. Their fins brush against each other as they twist around each other like twin stars. Their songs are sweet in Isak’s ears. Sana watches him track the ethereal creatures, as if she knows exactly what’s going through his head.

“But then… well, then you met Even,” Sana says. “And then you woke up.”

 

o o o 

 

Even writes three drafts of a letter that he’s not sure will ever be read. It’s not even major ideas that need changing; its little words, and the way that he’s written the last e. He doesn’t need more drafts because the words have been spinning on painful repeat through his head for days.

He thinks a glass bottle would be the best container, but his mom took all the recycling out and he hasn’t bought beer in a few weeks, so he settles on a plastic snack bag. He slips a polished, black stone in to weigh it down – he hesitates, feeling the pebble through the film. He’s too tired to cry properly, but a few tears do slip down his cheeks. He rubs the back of his hand over each side of his face and pulls a scarf around his neck. The walk down to the dock is short and familiar, each step holding a different memory of Isak.

He’s sure the mermaid is long gone and has no intention of returning to this place, but Even wants to say sorry, and he doesn’t know a better way.

He puts the stone down where he found it at the end of the dock. An erne perches in the boughs of a dead tree by the mouth of the inlet. The surface of the water is choppy, cut up with little white wounds. The great walls of the fjord look like slate teeth rising up from the earth and Even closes his eyes, hearing laughter on the wind, feeling seaspray on his face. He stands there for long minutes, maybe five, maybe an hour. The grey clouds overhead move as one rolling mass, like the widest of rivers.  _ Lethe, _ Even thinks idly when he looks out at them.

He walks away slowly, following the path up from the fjord and heading towards town. He can’t be in the cabin right now.

Even doesn’t see the erne cock her head to the side. He doesn’t see her leave her perch and ride the buffeting breezes over to the dock. She lands and rustles too-dark feathers and grabs the plastic in her beak. She spreads her wings and flaps quickly, kicking off and leaving tiny gouges in the wood.

Even keeps walking.

 

Isak’s been swimming up and down the coast outside of Even’s inlet all morning. When he ventures inside, he never breaks the surface, just stares up at the reflective barrier as if he doesn’t have the ability to break through. He investigates the whole cove, finding a number of caves he’s sure would be absolutely beautiful in the summer. He had no idea there were any caves on this side of the fjord. He finds a nesting octopus and a pile of rocks that looks like a rearing horse if he squints. He spent so much time here, and yet all his focus had been above the water, he never noticed how much was beneath it.

Isak’s resting in the mouth of one of the caves when something plunks through the surface of the water above his head. It hits him in the chest before he can grab it. At first it looks like trash, a piece of paper and a pebble in a plastic bag.

But then Isak, out of millions of billions of stones in the sea, recognizes  _ this _ stone.

_ “You kept it?”  _ Isak asked, reaching out from the safety of Even’s duvet to trace over the pebble sitting on his bedside table.

_ “It was a gift,”  _ Even told him, kissing the knob of his spine.

_ “More of a message.” _

_ “A love letter, then.” _

Even’s face had pressed into the crook of Isak’s neck, and Isak had sunk into his embrace. It had been so warm and now Isak is so very cold.

He casts a nixie spell of protection on the paper and rips the bag open. He holds the stone against his palm as he unfolds the paper with shaking hands.

_ To Isak: _

_ I’m sorry for everything that happened. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about my bipolar. It got so easy to mix up what was real and what wasn’t with you. I know that you exist. I know that you’re real, but even though you’re real, to me you were still just a dream. I’m sorry I made you think that we could be anything but that. You were my favorite dream, though. But I know that everyone has to wake up in the end. _

_ I’m sorry for everything. _

_ I love you, Smal, Gull – my Isak, I love you. _

\-         _ Even _

Bubbles float up around Isak’s face. He doesn’t need to breathe underwater, but the emotions move his lungs regardless. He stares at the words. He reads them again, and again. His fingers dig into the paper and the stone digs into his palm.

Over the past week there’s been hundreds of things swirling through Isak’s head. Everyone’s words and opinions and truths creating mountains for Isak to scale in his mind, Magnus’ admonitions and Sana’s revelations the tallest of all.

He knew there was still a choice to make - he wouldn’t be here in Even’s inlet if his resolve was still rock solid. It’s a shaky and fragile thing –  _ Isak  _ is a shaky and fragile thing.

Yet, suddenly none of it matters. Isak’s fear, Even’s illness, they shrink down into something that isn’t strong enough to stop Isak from rapidly swimming towards Even’s dock. All Isak knows is that he needs to find Even. He needs to see him.

He hits the shore awkwardly, shifting into a human form for the first time since he let Sonja send him away. He stumbles as he stands. It’s mid-afternoon, and the sun is hiding behind a thick layer of clouds. Isak changed his bangles and shells into warmer clothing, but the gusts of wind have his cheeks pink before he even reaches Even’s door.

He knocks once softly and then once louder. He waits as his urgent energy keeps rising. He tries the doorknob and finds it unlocked. Even almost never locks it – there’s not much threat of a break-in on the outskirts of Galalog.

Isak crosses the threshold and is hit with overwhelming familiarity - the smells, the papers on the walls, Even’s shoes kicked into the corner of the foyer. If Isak wasn’t so single minded, he may have been frozen. Instead he rushes to  check the living room, the kitchen.

“Even?” he calls as he finally reaches the bedroom.

It’s freezing, and empty. The curtains flutter as wind rolls in through the open window. There is a pile of blankets on the bed, four mugs with varying levels of liquid inside sitting on the bedside table. But there’s no Even, so Isak keeps moving. He doesn’t think about it when he habitually grabs one of Even’s spare coats from the hooks by the door.

He heads straight for town. Isak and Even didn’t often go into Galalog together, but they had a few times over the months. He checks the coffee shop where Even buys foamy coffees and sticky pastries. He checks a charity shop that has a good collection of old records. Isak thought it was strange that Even was into an archaic medium of music when he could get almost any song he wanted off the rectangle in his pocket – but Even had insisted that records were cool.

The bell tinkles above the door when Isak pushes it open. 

“Hello, can I help you?”

A young woman with a nose piercing stands behind the counter and looks up when Isak enters. They’re the only two people in the store. No Even.

“No… sorry. I’m just looking for a friend of mine,” Isak says, eyes watering at the sudden change in temperature from the brisk outdoors to the warm, dry air in the shop – at least that’s why he thinks his eyes are watering. “Do you know… Do you know which direction is  _ Alta?” _

“Oh, it’s right up the street, just over the hill,” the girl says helpfully. “Does your friend go there?”

Isak nods and quickly thanks her before backing out of the shop and beginning to jog up the street. Half way up the hill, his foot catches on a cobblestone and his knees slam to the ground. He gasps in pain and realizes running might be a little beyond his current abilities. These feet are only borrowed after all. He gets up and keeps jogging anyway.

His lungs burn by the time he reaches a sign that reads  _ Alta Hovden Skole. _ He’s never been here, but Even’s told him about it. Isak knows about his offbeat maths teacher, about the group of girls who still pass notes in his French class – Even thinks it’s neat, notes on paper when they could just text.

It’s late enough in the afternoon that students are filtering about the courtyard, many heading back down the road towards Galalog or to the train station that will take them to the nearby towns. According to Even,  _ Alta _ is the biggest school in the surrounding areas, and pretty popular for being so far out of a major city. A couple students, like Even, moved to Galalog to attend. None of it means much to Isak – he’d just been happy that Even could bring him good books to read and that he let Isak get overly involved in his homework.

Isak stands by the gate, at a loss. He doesn’t know Even’s exact schedule, or if he’s even at school. Isak first tries a kind looking girl who passes the gate by herself. She knows Even’s name –  _ the transfer student from Oslo? I’m sorry, I don’t have any classes with him, and haven’t seen him –  _ but nothing beyond that. Next he asks a group of boys bumping into each others shoulders as they leave the school’s campus.

“Even? Yeah, we know him. He’s a cool dude,” of them says.

“He doesn’t come out much but it sort of gives him that mystery vibe. I honestly thought he was going to be hooking up left and right when he started,” a boy in a blue snapback adds.

“Competition…!” a pale skinned boy with a leather jacket jokes.

“But I think he’s dating someone who doesn’t go to  _ Alta _ ,” blue snapback says. “Good for us – he’s too good looking.”

“Anyway,” the original speaker cuts back in. “We have a couple classes with him, but he hasn’t been in in the last week. I assumed he was out of town or something…”

It’s all Isak needs to know. He thanks the boys and then disengages before they can ask him any questions. Isak heads back to Galalog. By the time he reaches the town square, daylight is fading. The wind has died down to a steady breeze and there are a few breaks in the clouds now, revealing a muddy purple sky beyond coal colored clouds. He wanders the streets aimlessly, hoping… he doesn’t know for what at this point. 

He’s not even sure Even is in Galalog. Maybe he’s in Oslo with his parents. Isak’s borrowed knees ache from his fall and he wonders if the bruises will follow him back to the water. He trudges back towards Even’s cabin. His legs feel shaky, and if he didn’t have Even’s coat, he’d duck off the path as soon as he was out of town and transform, escape back into the water. But his habitual theft is costing him now. He’s held a human form this long before, but he’s never used it so aggressively.

He’s just wondering if he’d be able to drag himself back to the water if he lost the form, when he comes around the corner and stops.

There’s someone on Even’s dock.

Isak’s weary legs carry him just a bit farther. Scrub grasses wave him down to the beach and the waves lick the shore as if they’re trying to climb up to meet him. Even’s standing at the end of the dock. He’s in a thick coat but the hood is down, hair free and windswept. The fjord rolls out before him, steep hillsides and water black against the navy sky. The sounds of the water swallow Isak’s footfalls. He’s so close now that he can see the way that Even’s ears are red with cold, can almost catch sight of clumped eyelashes peeking out over smooth cheekbones.

Which is of course when Isak collapses. His legs disappear and he crumples over his tail. He catches himself for the most part, Even’s coat cushioning his fall. He curses in selkie as he tries to push himself up.

He tilts his head back and Even’s there, on his knees in front of Isak. 

Even looks baffled. He looks tired. There are bruise-like marks under his eyes. Even’s always had a bright light inside him, a fire in his chest, but Isak can’t see that in him now. He looks like the water. He seems stuck now that Isak’s looking at him, like he can’t believe Isak’s here.

Like he can’t believe Isak’s real.

It’s odd. He’d hardly seemed this surprised to see Isak even that very first time. 

The last time Isak saw Even, the human’s eyes were closed; his body had been frozen. Isak sits up, pulling his tail beneath him. He reaches out with a shaking hand. He hears Even’s throat click when he swallows; they’re  close enough for it to be audible over the waves.

Something comes undone at the first touch. Even shivers, skin cold against Isak’s palm. Isak leans in, reaches out with his other hand. He waits until Even’s eyes close, waits until the human presses into his touch, before moving closer in the only way possible in this form. He curls into Even, tail wrapping around their bodies. Even lets out a shuddering breath when Isak presses their foreheads together. Their breaths can be felt on each others cheeks, a tangible thing. 

Their lips are millimeters apart when Isak speaks. His words are no more than a whisper, but he means them with all his heart.

_ “We are not a dream.” _

He kisses Even. He kisses him softly, on the corner of his mouth, on his cheek, over his brow. He rubs their noses together gently, tracing the familiar line of it. His tail is tight around them, and Even’s hand fists into his own stolen coat. His knuckles rest against Isak’s ribs. Below, Isak’s heart thumps out a steady rhythm. When Isak kisses Even’s lips again, Even leans into it like waking up. And Isak holds him. When their lips part, he presses his forehead into Even’s temple and just breathes, finally recognizing the new ache in his chest. He thinks Even is doing the same.  

They stay there on the dock, with Galalogfjord as the only witness. The air from their lungs floats up above them like a watery smokestack. 

_ We are not a dream. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're very close to the end now, so thank you all for taking this journey with me! You can find the post of this fic and my blog [here](https://moonlitbird.tumblr.com)!
> 
> I hoped you like this chapter and absolutely can't wait to hear what you think!


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